Drabbles of a Gay Ballet Slipper
by Sigmu
Summary: A series of drabbles with lesbian!Tea/Anzu, various dribbles about Tea/Anzu and several lesbian shippings all with Tea/Anzu in them. Side gay pairings will include: puzzleshipping, tendershipping, and puppyshipping! WARNING: Yuri and Yaoi!
1. Princess T no pairings

Author's note (skip if you just want to get on with it):

For the character named Anzu/Tea (who I feel as though would be more interesting as a lesbian) there are some grossly ignorant misconceptions about what it means for her to want to become a dancer when she grows up in the original series that I'd like to explore/correct in my writings (I've known several ballet dancers and let me tell you all of that training that they go through makes them both very strong and fast, there is no way that a bad guy could possibly hope to overpower a dancer without coming away from the experience with a few broken bones).

In the show she always seems to be the one who the bad guy's capture and she is always painted as either the damsel or the extra character whose only purpose is to be the love interest (eye candy) for the main boy character, **_rarely_** did she ever come in to save the day, or actually play the freaking game, or play a major role in more than a few episodes (and some of those outfits she wears… seriously? When you know that there is going to be an epic showdown of some sort you don't wear a mini skirt and a skimpy crop-top). This is obviously unfair in my opinion, even as a small child I could see this and thus was one of the two reasons why I had stopped watching the show, so now years later I'm going to vent my past frustrations through the glory that is fanfiction and remake this character into someone that my child self would have found far more interesting.

Also there needs to be a fan fiction story written with at least a few somewhat true fact about the realities of becoming a ballet dancer. I've checked and the number of good stories about her as a lesbian is very few, and ones with some true facts about dancing are just about slim to none.

On with the story! Hope somebody out there likes this.

XXX

Princess

At an early age Tea learned that being a dancer meant that she would have to learn more about art than just how to spin on her tippy toes, being a serious dancer and thus a part of the art community she had to learn about culture, anatomy, history, music, art theory, first aid, theater, certain types of medicine, and of course traditional artwork itself. A dancer was a student of the mind just as much as they were of the body, and in order to become successful at dancing one must give their hearts over to it, thus making the world of art their new home, a citizenship maintained by passion and more than one bloodied ballet slipper.

The dance studio she studied in was a company supported by a University based in Tokyo, and being apart of the art department the studio often had traditional art students sketching or taking photographs of the dancers, bright musicians and singers bringing live sound in tune to the dancer's steps, the theater section of the department studied their dancing bodies and spoke of great choreographers and would kindly set up the grand auditorium for shows and constantly auditioned for actors who could also dance for bigger plays with a Broadway flair, and occasionally they would get people from medical schools coming in to either teach seminars to the budding dancers on how to take proper care of oneself and first aid, or for a class to show future doctors how so much constant physical training shaped the body until it was all lean muscle and sinew.

The closer Tea got to her goal of graduating high school the more she found her life in the art world spilling over into her normal, comparatively boring life as just another high school girl (save those occasions where the world must be saved by her best friends playing children's card games. That was surprisingly pretty hardcore), and seeing as how she was going to someday soon be completely immersed in said art world, Tea did not mind going to see plays, concerts, or art galleries at all, in fact she thrived for getting all dressed up to the nines and having in depth conversations with like-minded individuals.

She stood in front of a painting at one of these art galleries, all decked out in dress pants (that hugged her in all the right places), a stylish pink and red vest-shirt (with a matching tie), and comfortable flats (because long-term wear of high heels caused the ankles to weaken and put unnecessary strain on the legs leading to injuries during dancing that could have been avoided). All in all she looked a little like a dapper cowgirl (especially since she had decided to wear the fedora) and she was _loving_ being able to wear things that people normally would have given her grief over in the boring schoolgirl life.

Standing out from the crowd… was never a good idea in an environment filled with overly dramatic adolescents, but dressing differently was not an issue when she was surrounded by artists (for the most part, there were exceptions) or if she was somewhere _not_ Domino (again for the _most_ part). There was a large percentage of people in Domino who either knew her or had heard _of_ her and they considered it perfectly fine to come up and essentially tell her to stop this dressing differently/ dancing/ having all guy platonic friends nonsense and get serious about making a family (because apparently dressing well and eating lunch with her friends meant that she was shamefully flaunting her radical dreams of perusing a dancing career), it was for the most part ( _blessedly_ ) rude to do so in New York and complete strangers didn't give a damn (she could not _wait_ to _move far, far away_ from Domino sometimes).

Pumpkin carriages, mice morphing into horses, a strapping looking man in a white royal suit holding a blonde woman with an impossibly large chest nearly falling out of her raggedy dress, and a horrendously tiny waist, held within his arms. She maintained a perfect submissive posture, head thrown back, arm dramatically held over her head, breasts jutting perkily upwards as if trying to reach the sky, and to top it all off she had one very skinny looking leg raised up so that the viewer could admire the glass slipper fitted over the woman's impossibly tiny foot.

The painting was horribly clichéd in Tea's opinion, but the piece as a whole was saved by the fancy lettering at the bottom of the canvas; _Every girl's dream? Or a childhood nightmare?_

The girl approved of the message the work was trying to convey.

"Nightmare." She stated with absolute certainty.

The boy next to her startled at the unexpected (according to him), blunt statement. Yugi had offered (leaped at the opportunity) to go with her to the gallery when he asked why she had been so busy lately and she had informed him that the art department was hosting all of these shows in the Domino area. She thought that he felt guilty that he had automatically assumed that something was wrong when in reality she had just been living her life, and that thought probably made him realize that he hadn't been by to watch her dance or had gone to one of her shows in a very long time. Or at least she hoped that it was because he had wanted to hang out with her as a friend. Gods she hoped that he had gotten over his half crush half lust for her (she _knew_ what he was thinking whenever he would blush bright red and get this really creepy look on his face), because she _definitely did_ _not_ _feel the same way_ and the thought of him only wanting to come to the gallery with her because he wanted to impress her in the hopes that he could turn this into a date (or something else) from her was just… so bleakly depressing that she just wanted to curl up in a corner and cry.

"Why would you say that it's a nightmare?" Yugi asked, looking at her with those wide eyes of his (she guiltily sometimes mentally attributed them to bambi eyes, or sad-small-furry-animal-eyes, but she never voiced this, her friend had enough self-esteem issues). "I thought that all girls wanted to be princesses and find their prince?"

Tea grimaced, thinking of how her aunt kept commenting on how well she'd be able to snag a husband by being something as exotic as a dancer, of how people just assumed that she'd throw away eleven plus years of training the instant something male and wealthy got down on one knee, of how she could not dress how she wanted to, speak as she wished to, live as she needed to because people thought of her as a princess, a dancing princess just waiting to be snatched up and caged in the form of a housewife. She thought of how those creepy boys looked at the way she would dress and act differently from the other girls and crave to have her, for the challenge and the bragging rights, how they only backed off when she looked boring, average (the Domino High school uniform was so hideous in her opinion that _anybody_ would be turned off), and how she surrounded herself with all male friends, therefore with these three things combined (in their minds) she was obviously taken by one of them but they could never tell just which one and they were not going to risk stepping onto what they perceived was some other guy's territory (especially since she looked so plain and non-challenging in that ugly school uniform).

She thought with a clenching heart, of how she was almost completely ostracized by the other girls at her school. She was different, different was bad according to them, different spelled competition, _being different_ meant that she could not be as easily controlled by the popular few, and she _was_ different, very different, but she was not competition. Her heart and body swung more towards the affections from another of the same gender and persuasion as she. No, she was not competition.

But she was different and her nature would surely spark biting hypocritical comments of how she should be setting her sights on finding a husband… not a wife.

Because she was a princess according to them, a princess that had to be hated and lusted after, that was they way they assumed how the world worked- how _she_ worked.

"Not all girls dream of being princesses." Tea murmured looking at the fake woman in the painting with hard eyes (because really that thing may be female but it was definitely not a real self-respecting woman who bled and cried and fought and screamed and _dreamed_ their way into womanhood just as every self-respecting woman she had ever met had done at some point or another).

"For some of us being labeled as someone so helpless that they don't even try to fight back…" She stopped herself, breathing deep, now was not the time to get passionately angry and worry her sensitive friend further. "…It's a living nightmare. Just… trust me on this."

She could feel him looking at her curiously, she didn't want to dwell on this too much so she plastered on a big fake grin when she turned to face him. She had gotten good at summoning up big fake grins over the years. "C'mon, lets snatch some cookies for Joey and Tristan from the snack table, say our respects to the artist, and go off to meet those two knuckleheads over at burger world."

He kept staring at her in concern, even as she filled his hands with three little stacks of napkin wrapped cookies and spoke with the artist and laughed at a few inside jokes that surely left her companion in a state of confusion.

It wasn't until they were walking through the early afternoon lit streets that someone spoke.

"Are you alright Tea?" Came the low baritone voice of Yami Yugi, this time making Tea startle.

"Yep." She smiled, it was still a little faked but she had calmed down some.

He raised a brow, showing that he did not believe her in the least. "You seemed troubled earlier." He observed lightly, only she knew that he was not seeing it as lightly and he was not going to let this matter drop. If something was hurting Yugi's friends then Yugi would be hurting too, it was what made the spirit so invested in making sure that all was well in Yugi's inner circle, so that meant that Tea could not wiggle completely out of this with just a smile and a wave.

The last time she had tried that, it had been after a particularly nasty interaction with a new girl from school who had cultivated an unhealthy infatuation with some boy and as it had turned out this same boy (who Tea still could not name or pick out of a line up to save her life) had developed a crush on Tea, thus resulting in the girl making violent threats to Tea.

Both the spirit and Yugi had known something was up but she refused to tell them at the risk of worrying them further for something that she was certain that they could do nothing about, she had the situation perfectly under control as far as she had been concerned, she had a voice recorder on her at all times and was accumulating quite a fair bit of evidence to go to the police with (like hell the school would do anything if she went to them).

But her two dear friends had not been convinced that all was well (it… had been difficult masking the fear she had been feeling because seriously this chick threatening her was practically homicidal crazy towns) so they had teamed up and became almost like her shadow.

Despite her best efforts to soothe any worries without giving away the reason why she had been so spooked they were still worried and soon enough the boy and spirit had gotten Tristan, Joey, and even Ryou involved.

For a full week she had one of them showing up at her house early in the morning to walk with her to school, someone to walk her to dance practice, back from dance practice, half dragging her to have a sleepover at one of their houses (In Joey's case it was his mother's residence over the weekend, the boy earning some points for bringing over someone as nice looking as Tea to play with Serenity).

Finally Tea broke down, tiredly explained the situation and showed them the taped collection of verbal threats and some written ones she had been receiving in the locker room, and girl's bathroom.

When asked why she hadn't gone to the school or authorities yet she dryly reminded them that unless there were a significant number of threats as proof of any harassment she'd just be turned away as just another hysterical schoolgirl looking to get attention. It was sad that she even had to deal with such stereotypes at the school and law enforcement levels, but that was just how things ran in Domino as far as she could see.

They had tried to assure her that her fears of being treated poorly for being a girl were not true so she told them about the time a few years ago when two girls in her dance studio had to live weeks in fear of the same admirer who had tried to stalk them, but despite the evidence given to the Domino police nothing had been done until someone with some pull at the university found out and made a big fuss and that was why she did not trust the cops (nobody brought up the idea of going to the school authorities because it was well known that Yugi used to get bullied on a daily basis and no teacher even _tried_ to stand up for him).

The situation had (supposedly) solved itself the day after she had confessed about being threatened and Tea never had to turn in the notes or the tape full of those threats to anybody.

"You do remember what happened the last time you tried to keep something serious from your friends who could've helped you." As if reading her mind the boy walking beside her coolly pointed out this fact, his face and tone clearly indicating that there would be no backing out now that he knew something was up.

She sighed. "I still don't completely believe that her parents just suddenly decided to send her to an all girls school in the middle of the semester… but thanks… for whatever it was you did that made her leave me alone." She admitted because for all of her carefulness and precautions she had been terrified and now she didn't have to be anymore. "It's nothing serious this time, I guess the painting… hit a little too close to home… and it hit a nerve."

He stared at her for a long while as they walked, she was careful not to look at him mostly because the spirit's often-unblinking eyes wigged her out sometimes and she couldn't help but feel all sorts of exposed when he stared at her, made her want to confess to anything and everything just to get him to stop, she wondered where he had learned how to do that.

The spirit hummed in thought, he looked calm, as if he were about to discuss the weather. "If you never wanted to be a princess as a girl then what did you want to be?" He asked throwing Tea for a loop.

She had a difficult time understanding the spirit of the puzzle, he was her friend and someone she respected greatly but… he was just so… stoic; it was very difficult to gain a good read on what he was thinking half the time. Plus he was incredibly eccentric and so in love with games she swore he'd marry it if he could, Yugi was the same but his emotions at least were easier to read.

And he had the annoying knack for spouting out random yet eerily insightful things at the drop of a hat. It was very disconcerting when he aimed those things at her.

She thought on his question for a moment, her face softening, looking almost mournful.

"Firebird." She said. "I wanted to be the firebird."

The boy blinked head tilted to the side. "What's a… firebird if you don't mind me asking?" Tea could almost see Yugi imitating the same posture and saying the same thing.

Tea paused, how was the best way to explain this to a non-dancer? Someone who had never heard of the story or seen the ballet?

"…In the story the firebird… she is a creature that is free, she lives as she wants and she does as she pleases… no one dared tried to force her to marry a prince that she barely knows, or lock her up in a fancy palace. She was never the helpless, brain dead damsel because whatever the situation she was clever enough to defeat her enemies and get out of trouble. Instead of being another female stereotype she goes and befriends a prince and _helps_ him save his kingdom and his lover from an army of evil demons. She is powerful and fearless, strong enough to fight off an entire army and brave enough to look her fears in the eye and not back down. In the story she is seen as an equal with her male counterpart, the prince, and a treasured protector to his family and kingdom."

Words tumbled out of Tea's mouth, wanting to give a satisfying answer and yet not wanting to start yammering on about the whole story and history behind the legend, they did not have time for that and she just wanted to get past this subject.

The girl blushed looking away, she felt embarrassed for admitting this much, even though these two boys were her best friends… That was just the issue, how was she to best convey to a _boy_ how utterly _frustrating_ it was to live in a culture where the female was always considered the weaker? The less important? The object?

"Sometimes… I just wondered what it would be like… living in a world where… gender didn't matter." She muttered her face feeling hot from suppressed frustration and anger. At the very least the issue was so old and familiar with her that she no longer felt the oncoming sting of tears at such unfairness, crying about it never did her any good, so the only way that she figured that she could do something about it was to forge her own version of a normal life. She planned to just take all of those stereotypes people threw at her on a daily basis and burn right through them with unladylike tactics and a real mean look until all that was left was herself, lit aflame and striding through life while a very large trail of the ashes of her enemies lay pitifully in her wake.

Just like the firebird. She didn't have to swoon and sigh about wanting to be a princess or crave to have some prince rescue her, she was her own hero, her own salvation, she was a powerful, unstoppable force, she knew this to be true and that is what made her different, what made her dangerous, made her able to look herself in the eye every time she stood in front of a mirror.

It was what made her free.

The spirit seemed to startle back a little and blinked rapidly for a moment at her muttered confession, a look that was equal parts stunned confusion and painful pity settled on his face.

"Oh look we're here!" Tea spoke with renewed excitement, cutting the spirit off just as he was about to open his mouth, no doubt to say something encouraging with something about the heart of the cards and friendship triumphing over all or something like that.

Tea turned away in order to properly roll her eyes, his concern was sweet and a little comforting but she was hungry and she didn't feel up to bearing her troubles to someone who could only partially understand the topic and could do nothing really to make things better, on an empty stomach.

Besides it was turning out to be a nice day so far, so why focus of the negatives?

"Tea-" The spirit tried but the girl cut him off with a smile and a shake of the head.

"I'm fine you guys, you don't have to worry about me, now lets get a move on, judging by the way Joey and Tristan have plastered themselves to the window they've been waiting for us and they haven't ordered anything yet."

The spirit turned towards the fast food restaurant across the street from them where their friends had indeed smooshed themselves against the large window and were looking at them with pitiful watering begging eyes.

"This topic is far from over." The spirit called after her in an amused huff, warning her that although their friend's antics had amused him enough into distraction the conversation would resume at a later, unexpected time.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that." Tea acknowledged with an accepting shrug. "But right now the whether is lovely and my stomach's growling, lets go and enjoy the day with friends yes?"

A blink of an eye and Yugi was standing there with a small smile. "Sound like a great way to spend the day." He said and with that the two of them made their way inside the restaurant where Joey and Tristan cheered at their presence and then happily helped themselves to the cookies instantly forgiving them for being ten minutes late.

Tea smiled to herself, sitting back and surveying the scene before her, trying to cherish the moment with her friends and the precious feeling of being seen as a fellow human being by the four most important people in her life.


	2. Fruit Drink T Side and Puppyshipping

Author's note (the juice exists):

A friend of mine really does drink this concoction, and yes I tried it and it ended badly.

XXX

Fruit Drink

"Hey 'Ren I'm gonna take a sip outta yer water bottle." Joey warned as he walked soaking wet from the Kiaba's private pool.

Serenity hummed in acknowledgement from her beach chair before pausing to remember that she had not packed a bottle of water because it would have been ridiculous to do so when her brother's boyfriend had water on tap.

"Joey wait that's not mine!" She sat up but it was already too late, her brother had already taken the water bottle out of her bag and chugged down its contents.

Joey fell to his knees, his cheeks being sucked in between his cheeks and his lips puckered with so much force that they turned white.

"MMMMM!" He screamed, jerkily waiving the bottle of juice water around as he convulsed.

"Joey?" Seto set down his laptop and got up from his own beach chair to check on his boyfriend.

"He's fine." Serenity assured even when Joey made a noise to disagree with her words. "Tea had asked me to hold her juice in my purse when we went out on our date this morning and we both must of forgotten it was in there."

"This is Tea's?" Mokuba jogged from the pool until he was in front of the blond, he pried the water bottle from Joey's tight grip and studied the color of the liquid.

"I've never seen juice this shade of… would you call that purple? Or a really dark orangey red?" Makuba asked.

"I would think that it would be either purple or orange." Seto told his brother dryly.

"Not with this drink you can't." Mokuba shoved the container into his brother's hands.

Seto studied the liquid for a moment, his face shifting to something that was a little nauseated.

"What is in this?" The CEO asked holding the container back to Mokuba so that he could hold Joey's shoulders while the other teen breathed deeply through his nose and tried to pry his lips apart.

"I've seen her make this a few times… lessee… she mixes some apple juice, orange juice, V8 juice… pomegranate, grape, lemon, lime… and what's the last one again…? Oh yeah! Pineapple. I distinctly remember pineapple. All of that is in there." The girl nodded pleased that she remembered all of that.

A pregnant pause surrounded the group.

"There's no way anybody would drink something like that." Mokuba shook his head disbelieving.

Serenity shrugged. "I thought that she was pulling my leg when I first saw her make this stuff but lo an behold she did and she drank it down no problem."

"Nah." Makuba shook his head again. "I mean, let's say I believe you, why would Tea be drinking this in the first place?"

"She says that it helps prevent colds and sore throats." Serenity shrugged again. "She also said that she had built up this sort of… taste immunity to the sour over the years and now she really likes it."

"I cath sheel 'e lipths!" Joey whimpered dramatically, leaning into his boyfriend's chest as the older boy rubbed his thumbs into Joey's shoulders.

Mokuba blinked at Joey before turning back to Serenity. "She really drinks this?"

"Yep." The girl nodded.

The boy thought for a moment. "… What if she wanted to kiss you doesn't that taste too sour?"

He yelped when Joey swatted at him. "What? I'm only asking!"

"Actually it's not so bad." Serenity confessed easily. "By the time we kiss she tastes a lot like a mildly sour candy."

"Eeek! I dun wanna here dat from my sistah, 'bout her an' my best friend kissin'!" Joey swiped at his ears as if to dispel the thought.

Serenity gave him an irritated look. "It's that kind of talk from you that's keeping my girlfriend from going any further with me other than kissing me on the _inside_ landing of my house!" She grouched.

Seto rolled his eyes already seeing where this conversation was going, so appeased that Joey was not dying he stood up to go back to his work and resolutely ignored the siblings.

"Good!" Joey swore. "Dat's why I approve of her! She knows dat fifteen is way too young to be goin' any furthah' den dat with you!"

"I'm old enough have those needs too!" Serenity argued. "I'm only two years younger than her and I'll be turning sixteen in two months! I can handle going further than just a kiss on the lips hello and goodbye!"

"Gah!" Joey screeched. "I dun wanna be hearin' my sistah sayin' dat she want's ta have sex with my best friend!"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Who said any thing about sex? I was talking about making out! We've been dating this long and she hasn't even tried to give me a hickey!" She paused. "Although I will be of legal age of consent soon, and I wouldn't mind…"

"Yeee! Why are ya tellin' me this?" Joey squealed covering his ears.

"Because part of the reason why she is holding back is you! She wouldn't be dating me in the first place if it weren't for you giving her permission to do so! And she isn't willing to take our relationship to the next level because you are holding her back!" Serenity accused.

Joey rolled his eyes this time. "It wasn't like dat an' you know it." He admonished. "She didn't think dat she had a chance with you an' dat you were too young. De only thing I did was t' tell her dat der was nothin' wrong with datin' you at yer age an' dat you was chompin' at the bit to go on a date with her."

"Besides." The boy continued matching his sister's scowl with one of his own. "Haven't you only been datin' for five months? Ain't it a bit early to be askin' Tea to "go to de next level" with you?"

"Yeah well how long did it take before you and Seto went to "the next level", huh?" Serenity shot back.

"Who says dat we are at the next level?" Joey states serenely, making Seto cough and discretely cover up the hickeys on his collarbone with his shirt. It was only a partial lie, depending on whether the girl was talking about the making out or the sex… seeing as how his and Joey's confession to each other basically consisted of a lot of heavy kissing…

Before Serenity could open her mouth Mokuba had decided that he really rather not hear the girl list out graphic evidence while he was within hearing range.

And so he took a sip (not a gulp like Joey, he had at least more self control than that) of the sour juice blend.

"MMMM!"

"OMG! He drank it!"

"Are you crazy? Why do ya always hafta put everythin' in yer mouth?"

Seto sighed.

Why did it feel like he was the only sane one in the room at times?


	3. Opera Glasses M Mystshipping

**_Warning:_** light smut.

First time trying anything vaguely graphic.

XXX

Opera glasses

The pair of two fancy ocular enhancing devises had been a gift from Tea for their six-month anniversary, one had a flourishing Victorian design made with a red leather casing and had tiny golden dragons holding ankhs and the other seemed more militaristic, olive green painted metal with silver side decoration and… tiny silver gears for some reason…

The girl had explained that an acquaintance of hers who made these sorts of things for a sub-youth culture group called "steampunk" had been owing her a favor for a while and since this acquaintance had agreed to make two smallish things for free, Tea had apparently reasoned that since Isis was a classy lady then it would make sense for her to receive two well made opera glasses.

Despite the random nature of the gift Isis found that they were just as practical as they were pretty, it was useful in their intended use for watching Tea dance in performances, those times when one or the other was dragged off to a lecture or play, or in less… official capacities…

Tea liked to stretch in the early mornings, test her muscles and tendons for any aches or strains, sometimes she would even test out a few elaborate dancing steps, always something a little different from her expertise from jazz to ballet, and always a treat to Isis's eyes.

Except Tea hated being watched by anyone when she stretched alone. Made her feel self-conscious when she knew someone else was in the room while she stretched.

However if Isis was out of the room, Tea could pretend that she was alone. Since no one else was actually in the room she stretched in, did not loom in the doorway like a hungry specter (because sometimes Isis could be rather intimidating when she eyed her girlfriend with appreciative lust, much like a foreign queen appraising one of her harem girls), Tea felt calm enough to focus on her body's regular maintenance.

She knew that she wasn't alone, not really, especially since once she was finished Isis would be smugly standing in the adjacent room, holding one of her prized gifts close to her face before setting the opera glasses down in order to possessively drag Tea off for a shared shower, sometimes when they had work and school to get to all that would happen between them was some kissing, and cuddling, while they cleaned each other, sappily enjoying the other's company.

When they did have time however Isis seemed to truly appear to become a possessive queen staking her claim upon a favorite of hers; hands would fly over her body, devastating Tea of her sports bra and shorts long before they reached their destination, Isis stalking after the girl like a hungry predator as she shed her morning robe to let it fall carelessly to the floor.

Tea didn't know how it happened half the time; Isis would be kissing her senseless one-minute and then she'd find herself being pushed against a wall or sink or _something_ the next, breath hitching as Isis's hands cupped her breasts and roamed freely across the sensitive expanse of her tummy and thighs, the woman's fingers pinching teasingly on sensitive nipples and probing the cluster of nerves at the hollow of her hips and the junction between her inner thighs and pubic bone until Tea was wet and begging for her neglected throbbing need to be touched and stroked to relieve the heat building up at the base of her stomach and down her inner thighs.

Isis enjoyed watching the way that Tea would moan and buck her hips against the relentless spray of the detachable showerhead legs spreading wider as the water stroked her, if the favored showerhead was not within grasping range then she would stroke the girl with her fingers, watching Tea writhe and twitch until gifting Isis with an animalistic cry as she came.

Tea swore that she had been pressed onto just about every surface of their bathroom save for the ceiling; she didn't know what it was about Isis getting away with watching her or why that always seemed to result in the two of them ending up in the bathroom, not that she was ever going to complain about being ravaged and cuddled by a gorgeous naked woman, but whatever it was Tea was just happy that this was one odd quirk that she could get behind.

Although if by some weird way the topic of somehow trying anything out on the ceiling ever came up Tea was set on vetoing it, at one point or another the girl sometimes wondered whether or not Isis really was considering trying to defy gravity and conquer the untouched surface of their bathroom, and knowing how odd people who could wield magic tended to be at times it was not outside the realm of possibility that the thought actually had crossed Isis's mind at least once.

Isis often found herself staring at the ceiling afterwards as she and Tea cooled down in the bath her mind idly wandering to happy afterglow places and sometimes she would quietly thank the old gods that Tea had thought that those opera glasses would be such an appropriate gift.

Thoughts on baptizing the ceiling with their lovemaking were mostly passing things, seeing as that it would be more work than it was worth to set that up and she didn't think that Tea would accept any justification of opening a shadow realm pocket in the bathroom just for that purpose.


	4. Speedometer K Danceshipping

Speedometer

"Are you sure that you want to drive us to the tournament Mai?" Tristan asked nervously. "I've just gotten my license…"

"Oh hush now, I've got more experience on American roads than anybody here, and no offence Tristan but you drive slower than my gran, if I drive we can make a seven hour trip to the hotel into a six maybe a five hour one." Mai proclaimed with a cheeky grin.

Nervous glances were shared.

"'M not too sure dat a mini van can drive dat fast safely Mai." Joey tried.

"With me behind the wheel anything's possible." Mai grinned wider.

The males of the group turned their gaze to Yugi for help, the smallest boy giving them all a mild glare before her nervously cleared his throat. "Ah Mai maybe we should map out locations for you to switch out with Tristan, it is a long drive and all…"

"That's very sweet of you Yugi but it's been a while since I've had full uninhibited control behind the wheel because of Tea's phobia and since she has agreed to take the tranquilizers the doctor gave her I can reach proper driving speeds without her being utterly petrified." Mai turned to give her unusually stoic girlfriend a hug. "Not that I have any problems with going slower just for you of course." She pecked Tea's cheek making the girl smile a little. "Thank you for being so brave." Mai praised, to which Tea noted that nodding back was not a lie or something to feel guilty about because one had to be brave to let Mai behind the wheel to anything.

The boys blinked at the admission with obvious confusion.

"But Tea doesn't-" Yugi began but Tea interrupted.

"I didn't want anybody to know so please drop it!" The girl said quickly and fixed him with a stern look that Yugi had learned over the years meant that he needed to shut up and to keep his tongue in check.

Atem who had as of yet to be trained properly opened his mouth to voice his confusion but was stopped when Yugi nudged him, hard, and Tea fixed him a pleading look.

"Look it's just something that manifested after the whole… DOMA fiasco and I don't want to talk about it." Which again was not a complete lie, Tea had been on the roof of a train that had derailed off of a cliff, which had put her off of trains and rollercoasters for a bit, and Mai's driving was far more dangerously hectic than a rollercoaster.

"I'm not surprised that they haven't caught on, you are just too good at acting tough about this kind of stuff." Mai pointed out while rubbing Tea's shoulders.

Tea sighed her eyes un-focusing from the stubbornly confused glances being sent her way as she recalled that particular day.

 _Mai sighed. "Would you quit acting like my driving's going send you through the windshield? My driving isn't that bad!"_

 _"Who says this isn't how I normally ride in cars?" Tea squeaked gripping the dashboard with a death grip as they made a left turn so sharp that the girl could hear the tires scream for mercy._

 _Tea's heart stopped when Mai took her eyes off the road to eye the younger curiously. "Are you saying that you get nervous when riding in a car?" The older woman asked her tone turning sympathetic._

 _All of Tea's muscles locked when they screeched to a stop at a red light, her seatbelt cutting into her shoulder as it did it's sworn duty to keep her head from banging against her hands on the dashboard._

 _"Just the physics of what might happen if we crashed." Tea's voice was several notches higher than normal. "N-nothing that I can't handle." The girl quickly assured when she realized that she was painting herself into a corner. "I'm fine. Just keep your eyes on the road!"_

 _Mai only kept one eye on the road. "Aw sweetie you could've said something earlier, you know that I would've understood." She crooned sympathetically._

 _Tea's eyes widened for a whole different reason. Crap she should clear up this misunderstanding quickly before-_

 _"Get out of the way you moron!" Mai shouted honking the horn. "Can you believe this joker? Everybody knows that it's perfectly safe to travel up to five miles above the speed limit on these roads, nobody travels at or under it!" The blonde woman cursed flipping the bird at the driver in front of her before turning her full attention back to her petrified girlfriend._

 _And at that Tea surrendered herself to the fact that now apparently she was the type to get nervous when riding in cars because there was no way that Mai was ever going to believe that her driving was the reason why Tea was so nervous._

 _They drifted into the wrong lane Mai turned back sharply just in time to miss the desperately honking other vehicle._

 _Mai rolled down the window with a glare. "Get off the road if you can't drive you bastard!" She yelled at the innocent victim._

 _The dancer cursed the one who let her girlfriend have a driver's license; she didn't even feel guilty for the thought, she was the one trapped in the metal death box with a speed demon, at this point she didn't care what she had to do to keep both her sanity and her girlfriend happy, if Mai was appeased at the thought that Tea was afraid of riding in cars then so be it! Maybe… and perhaps this was her adrenaline talking, but if she stopped trying to act tough and let a little more of of her fear of being in the car with Mai at the wheel in her body language…_

 _Tea let out a pitiful whimper as they turn another corner rather violently._

 _"Oh honey." Mai stated sympathetically and Tea felt guilty for only a split second about deceiving her girlfriend but then the car slowed down and all of the guilt vanished as Tea breathed a little easier._

 _"I'm sorry." The girl apologized partly for spoiling the other's fun and partly for the lie that now must be upheld for perhaps years to come if it would keep Mai from driving like a demon while she was in the car._

 _"Don't try to act tough." Mai ordered fondly. "Fear is fear and it is perfectly ok to acknowledge you are scared of something."_

 _Tea just nodded and leaned back with a sigh, she guessed that this was going to be one of those little things you kept a secret from your significant other in order to keep both people happy._

Whatever Yugi and the other boys saw on Tea's face made them clam up in unison, Tea gave them a curt nod in approval before placing a pill on her tongue and throwing back a gulp of her bottle of water.

"Do you think she'll share the magic medicine with us if we asked?" Atem asked Yugi only half joking, the comment earned him another elbow, but this time hitting him softly in the side, from his boyfriend (the gentleness told the other that Yugi secretly agreed but would not voice it aloud).

"I heard that pharaoh." Mai admonished with a look that promised immanent retaliation, no doubt while they were all in the car.

It was going to be a long trip.


	5. Humming K Mystshipping

Humming

Isis greeted Egypt's bright morning sunlight filtering through the sheer white curtains with a radiant grin plastered onto her face, humming to herself as she nearly danced into the kitchen-slash-dining area of the recently built condo.

Malik and Odin paused in what they were doing and turned as one to their unusually chipper sister with identical looks of shocked weariness.

"You are in a… good mood this morning." Odin spoke tentatively keeping one eye on his sister as he turned back to cooking their breakfast.

"Hmmm." Isis acknowledged glancing back to the stairs leading to the second floor bedrooms; Malik twitched with a look of creeping horror when he saw the woman's eyes go half lidded and turn darker with a molten heat.

Odin blinked at the odd look his sister was making his gaze going between the woman and the stairs in confusion. "I hope that you and Miss Gardener did not have too many difficulties because of the single sized bed, again I apologize for not realizing that it would only be natural for the two of you to share a room… given your ah… relationship to her." The man apologized fiddling with his spatula, his confusion deepening when his sister's unusual good mood seemed to lighten further.

Isis chuckled. "It's perfectly fine Odin." She assured her grin suddenly turning wolfish. "Tea and I fit fantastically well in that bed…"

Malik twitched even more violently and Oden, suddenly understanding the unspoken implications, blushed.

"Just a fair warning I'm going to serve breakfast in bed for Tea, she… didn't get much sleep last night." Isis smiled impishly making Malik groan.

"You don't have to I'm up!" A voice squeaked from the stairs as Tea rushed down them giving her girlfriend a mortified look as she passed her.

Isis casually caught Tea's hand before the girl got out of reach, pulling the blushing teen close and giving her a pleading look.

Tea sighed before relenting to give the older woman her customary good morning kiss before escaping Isis's grasp to sit down at the dining table, carefully avoiding meeting Malik or Odin's gaze.

"Master Malik don't squint your eyes like that else your face will stick that way." Odin scolded his little brother half-heartedly a soft smile adorning his face.

"Yeah well we can't all be closet romantics like you and besides that's our sister and one of my friends that are making googley eyes at each other! I think that I'm allowed to make some faces at seeing them interact after the morning after." The boy defended. "By the way Tea the love bites on your neck are showing."

"Gods." Tea cursed taking the collar of her borrowed shirt and turning it up.

"I'll go chill a spoon." Odin announced professionally a laugh in his tone.

"You might want to chill a few spoons." Malik observed pointing to a spot just beneath his chin. "It'll be pretty difficult dressing for the weather if you don't want that one to be seen."

"At least everyone will know that she's taken." Isis declared severely. "Especially those fool boys that hang around the tourist spots like flies."

Tea blushed and covered the mentioned bruised area with her palm while giving her girlfriend a glare. "Malik will be with me the whole time so I hardly think that you have much to worry about."

Malik hummed, thinking. "I think that those might be more beneficial than you may think Tea, the whole time we are hanging out all the guys will think that you are with me and all the girls will think that I'm with you so we can enjoy the sights without having to deal with the wrong gender hitting on us the entire time." The boy grinned seeming rather pleased.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Tea agreed without hesitation. "Especially if we have time to go swimming at one of those fancy pool areas you were talking about. Even though I will be wearing my board shorts and sports bra top for my bathing suit it'll still be nice having a friend there to deter persistent strangers. Joey and Tristan have pretended to be my boyfriends for me before in Japan whenever we go to the beach, it really works." The girl stifled a yawn. "I'll probably end up taking a little cat nap in one of those pool-side chairs if we do go though." The girl admitted this time having to cover her hand over a full yawn.

"No worries." Malik waved his hand in dismissal. "I need to work on getting my tan back to its beautiful darker shades anyway spending the school year in Japan has really turned me pale." He looked down at his arms mournfully, his skin was still tanned sure but it was several shades lighter than what it had been when he first came to Japan. "I look like I've been living underground again." He sighed but perked up immediately as a thought stuck him. "And with you there I can wear my speedo!"

Isis pursed her lips. "If the two of you are just going to be laying around in the sun then why don't you do so on the roof of this house? It's got more privacy and Tea can… wear the bathing suit I got her…" The woman leaned over Tea's shoulder with a flirtatious look that made the girl blush anew.

"So that you can openly eye my friend in front of me and then end up sneaking her away for a few hours only to appear at dinner time humming happily while Tea tries to hide even more love bites?" Malik made a face. "How's about no, 'cause I would like to hang out with my friend for longer than a few hours at a time and I'd rather not accidentally stumble upon you two doing stuff during the daytime… again. And I'm sure that the same goes for Odin."

"It does." Odin agreed setting down plates filled with food before quickly taking the seat next to Tea before Isis had a chance to grab it.

"I just want to enjoy having Tea all to myself now that she's of legal adult age and we don't have to hide anything from Tea's parents here." Isis grumbled sitting down beside Malik and-woefully- diagonal to Tea. "They've been bad enough- well mostly her father has been trying to recruit me in his campaign to convince her to stay in Japan and do the "responsible thing" whatever that's supposed to mean."

"He's been trying to make nice-nice with his boss's inner circle." Tea explained with a roll of her eyes. "He's got some sort of need-to-belong-with-the-cool-boys issue, and all of the cool boy's daughters have boyfriends, are married, or are working in the same company as they are, he believes that he's the only one that stands out because I don't fit the preverbal mold. Because I'm eighteen and have made it very clear to him these past few years that not only am I financially independent but I also know the law so he can't use money as an incentive to at least make me get a part-time job at his company and he knows that mom will slay him if he tries to even mention me marrying one of my guy friends or meeting the boss's fifteen-year-old son. Especially not the last one, he has changed his mind about the last one, I had told him before we left _that_ could be interpreted as him trying to sell me out like a prostitute if myself or Isis ever decided to go to the cops about it."

"I thought that the legal age of consent was sixteen or older." Odin commented taking a bite of his hash browns.

"You're thinking about certain states in America, in Japan the legal age of consent is thirteen." Isis explained after swallowing a mouthful of eggs. "On the bright side legally Tea's parents can't do anything to me if they ever do find out, because it was all consensual." The woman gleefully told her brothers, both of whom had frozen with forks in their mouths.

"The benefits of dating an educated woman." Tea praised. "She knows the law."

"What about your mom?" Malik asked desperate to change the subject, mostly because Odin was mouthing shocked "Thirteen's" and Isis looked like she wanted to scar them all further with her knowledge on the matter if her evil grin was anything to go by.

"She's had years to get used to the idea of me wanting to become a dancer." Tea chuckled softly. "Her main pet peeve is that I'm going to move so far away. She's even threatening to find a job over there so that she can come live with me for the first year."

"I take it that you're not too pleased at that prospect." Odin said to a pouting Isis.

"Mrs. Gardener is a kind woman but three is just too many people living together, especially since she still doesn't know about… us." Isis coughed.

"I'm waiting for the shock of me being in another country to wear off before broaching the subject." Tea explained conspiratorially. "Mom's really too soft-spoken for her own good sometimes- hence why she hasn't killed my dad yet- usually she entertains the bad habit of Xanax chased with vodka if she's been shocked too far out of her comfort zone, between my dad, me moving out, and soon me moving far away I really don't want to stress her too much."

"I'd hate to lose one of my more powerful allies to a drug-induced haze." Isis sighed. "She once caught Mr. Gardener trying to get me to use my own career as an example to Tea that getting a "real job" would be in her best interests, never mind that I was explaining to him- for the third time- that I was being quite rebellious getting my degrees, but then Mrs. Gardener called her husband into the kitchen and whatever she had told him made him go pale and back off."

Malik and Odin guessed that Tea's mother might have done a little more than that because their sister sounded rather impressed by whatever it was that Mrs. Gardener did.

"Mom's soft-spoken, but she isn't shy to use dad's dirty secrets against him when the situation calls for it." Tea also sounded impressed but there was a little sadness to her tone as well.

Tea knew some of the secrets that her parents tried to hide from her, enough that Tea had given up trying to be the normal "good girl" and force herself to at least act like she was attracted to boys or to surrender herself to the fact that she'd have to marry one of her guy friends after one of them started showing interest in her long ago. Unhealthy views and allowing to be forced by others into a bad relationship would only breed her own self-destruction.

Tea's mother may be soft-spoken but she was strong and resilient in Tea's eyes, she did not crumble even though she was living in a loveless marriage and her life resembled that of being under house arrest with special outside field trips to the store every few days.

Tea knew that she would never be able to survive that kind of life without completely losing her cool and going bat-shit insane. Possibly becoming a raving mad woman terrorizing the streets of Domino City.

She had once explained this to her closest friends, none of them seemed too surprised and for that she loved them even more than ever before.

"Fine." Malik relented rolling his eyes. "For today and tomorrow we'll come back here to darken our tans and take naps in the sun but as soon as Tea gets more sleep…" At this he gives Isis a pointed look, "Then I'm going to hang out with her for a little longer, because she is my friend and I'm going to miss her when you two move to New York and she gets swamped by classes."

"You'll miss Tea and not me?" Isis leaned over her brother like a hawk over a mouse.

"If I wanted to go see you all that I have to do is go to the museum whenever I'm in New York, which will be a lot since lots of the Tomb Keeper's lawyers and funds are there, and it's not the same as trying to slip past campus security and join in on the dance classes without anybody noticing." Malik told his sister with pursed lips making the table laugh.

"Alright I can live with that." Isis allowed. "But Odin and I get to come along sometimes too it'll be good to see some of the old sights again."

The rest of the table agreed and they set about making plans for the week.


	6. Bra k no pairings

Author's note:

Ever notice that Tea doesn't seem to have any other friends other than the main characters in the show? I keep hearing about how Yugi had no friends before the spirit came around… but Tea had been there, she's his friend since _childhood_. And Tea keeps complaining about her lack of female friends…

I just think that it's kind of weird that they keep focusing on Yugi's loneliness in the show but not the fact that Tea was his only friend, or how Yugi seems to be _her_ only friend before Joey and Tristan came around.

XXX

Bra

It was bound to happen eventually Tea supposed, after all if the bad guys always seemed to try to make her the captive damsel solely based on the misconception that girls don't fight back, it only was a matter of time before one of them tried to take a slice or rip at her clothes, no doubt hoping that she'll dissolve into an anime cliché and try to cover herself with a girly scream.

Tea made a very bad damsel; in fact she would have beaten the living tar out of the two goons earlier when they grabbed her but one of them had a knife to Yugi's throat and since Yugi was a pacifist to a fault he wouldn't defend himself even if he knew _how_ (which actually made him the better damsel but she'd never voice that out loud), so she went along quietly and waited for her opportunity.

They had driven them to a warehouse, zip tied their hands behind their backs, and made them sit on hard metal chairs, presumably to wait for whomever wanted to duel Yugi (now in the form of a very irritated Yami) by force to show up or something like that, Tea was too busy watching the guy with the knife slowly back away from her friend to really pay much attention to the evil speech.

When knife guy was far enough away she stood up (the idiots hadn't even tied their feet) and proceeded to crush knife guy's nose under the heel of her shoe as she placed a satisfying kick to the idiot's head.

The other thug that had grabbed her was much smaller, but his mouth was certainly bigger, cursing up a storm and lunging for her with his fists, a thug with street skills he may have been but his sloppy movements couldn't quite match her speed, agility, and flexibility as she dodged and kicked feeling the flinch of wounded muscle and a few times there was a distinctive crack under her foot.

He grabbed the front of her shirt, bringing her close within striking range of his nether regions at one point, a sneer on his split lips revealing bloodied teeth.

"A girly like you wouldn't want me to rip-" Tea shifted her weight, kneeing the man as hard as she could before he could finish, then twirling away, not even noticing the front of her button up shirt ripping before twisting to knee him in the nose as he sunk down to the floor.

Tea wasn't really interested in what he was saying, or trying to say, the entire fight there had been yelling, Yami Yugi had been yelling, the thug had been yelling, it was just all background noise to Tea who was more focused on delivering as much pain as possible to her opponent.

Breathing hard, letting her heart calm down to a normal, slower rhythm Tea made her way over to her friend's side. "You ok? They didn't hurt you did they?" Tea asked her companion in concern.

Yami stared in wide-eyed horror at the two unconscious men on the floor.

Tea coughed awkwardly. "I once heard that you can break these things if you hit your tied wrists to the base of your spine." Tea grunted doing just as she described, laughing in glee when it actually worked, holding up her free hands for him to see like a child who had just learned a new magic trick.

Yami turned his attention to her, his eyes widening and a flush covering his cheeks before he turned his head away.

"Oh come on, please don't get mad at me for giving those two idiots what was coming to them!" Tea pled looking hurt.

"I'm not mad." Yami shook his head in denial still looking away.

She sighed, his unwillingness to look at her didn't convince her that his words were true, still feeling hurt she bent down to retrieve knife guy's fallen weapon and set to work gently cutting the boy free.

"Don't lie to me, right now you can't even look me in the eye!" She scolded a little bitterly. "I know that Yugi is big on the whole "no violence" stuff and that you were working yourself up for a heroic showdown and all, but the guy had a _knife_ pointed at _you_ , and I am _not_ just going to sit around when my friends are in danger and I am _certainly not_ going to be the one who begs pathetically for someone to rescue my sorry ass just because the creeps that follow you two around think that _I'm_ the one who will be the easiest target!" She growled setting his hands free. She stood up and tried to get him to look at her, which was proving to be difficult because every time she moved in front of him he would get redder and look away.

She scowled. "I'm getting sick of it! And if I find out that either one of you has been deriving some sort of… weird fantasy-come-true when you do have to save my ass in those rare times that I actually do need help so help me I will-"

"It's your shirt!" The deep baritone voice exclaimed actually sounding embarrassed and desperate.

Tea paused to consider the boy's uncharacteristic tone, usually the other Yugi was too well collected to sound anything other than dignified.

"You have an issue with the shirt that I chose to wear?" She put her hands onto her hips sounding incredulous. "I'm not too sure you have much grounds to police my fashion sense Mr.-I-wear-my-high-school-uniform-practically-everyday."

The boy looked to the ceiling as if asking for divine help or pleading with Yugi to switch him places. Either one was possible.

"Your shirt is ripped wide open." Yami tried again, more slowly this time, closing his eyes tightly. "I was trying to tell you that… your… top half is exposed- and Yugi wants me to ask you why and when you got a tattoo?" The spirit sounded pained for having to ask about the last part.

"Shit!" Tea exclaimed looking down, mentally sifting priorities to survey the damage to her clothing before addressing the issue of the tattoo. "He didn't rip the bra did he? It's almost impossible finding an affordable one that doesn't leave bruises or chafe in the local stores!"

Which was a half-truth, Tea personally hated going into those lingerie stores at the mall, mostly because she almost always had to ask someone for help in finding something that was comfortable (lace itched and over half the stores she visited had far too much of the blasted stuff) and every single time the lady helping her would try to get her to buy something "for the boyfriend" or "something that will get a future boyfriend's heart racing" (Tea suspected that there was some sort of sales pitch going around for high school girls only. Her grandmother never had such issues and she had boyfriends coming out of her ears), the only thing that ended up racing was Tea, out of the store.

Tea mourned the fact that her mother refused to go with her anymore (she said that it was because Tea was too big for her mother's help but in reality Tea suspected that all that talk about making her husband crazy for her made her mother depressed), and Tea wasn't really close enough to any of the girls at school or in dance class to ask if they knew a good place with decent deals… or to help her with choosing the correct size, her mother had explained it to her once but that was a long time ago.

"I don't think that's the thing you should be the most concerned about…" The boy sighed, prodding one of the unconscious thugs with his toe, the spirit almost looked jealous.

"The hell it isn't!" Tea growled, frantically going over the cups and seems of her underwear looking for damage. She released a breath when she found none. "Unless you are willing to help terrorize the creepy sales lady's down at the lingerie section of hell at the mall to actually give me what I want and not some glittery, itchy, lacy, painful, expensive monstrosity because, apparently, unless I can suddenly look over the age of thirty the sales clerks enjoy nothing more than to subject me to _their_ inappropriate ideas of what _they_ _think_ I should wear and completely ignore what I am actually looking for and willing to pay for… on second thought bringing you there might be something akin to bringing a baby antelope into a hungry lions den, actually I think that those ladies are scarier than you on a good day…" Tea muttered to herself, last time she was there everybody seemed to be complaining about their lack of boyfriends and since Yami Yugi had this dark and brooding aura around him… yeah that would be a bad idea, even though it would be hilarious watching the spirit have to deal with a bunch of older women comparing him to a sparkling vampire thing.

"Maybe you should cover up." The spirit suggested taking off his school jacket and handing it to her. "It must be uncomfortable being in such a state around us."

"Why would I be uncomfortable?" Tea asked confused as she experimentally puts the jacket on, to her surprise the fabric seemed to grow to fit her.

Which was umber Cool! She made a mental note to ask if that's how Yami Yugi always seemed to manage to fit into Yugi's clothes whenever they changed over.

"I could be stark naked and I wouldn't feel threatened or ashamed if it was just you two there, a little embarrassed and cold sure, but you two are more like my brothers and besides I know that you guys would never hurt me in that way or make me feel scared that you'd hurt me so…" Tea shrugged nonchalantly in the face of her friend's flabbergasted look (which was a hilarious look on the spirit's face, Tea kind of wished she had a camera).

The spirit turned to her in surprise. "You aren't worried about us seeing you in such a state of undress because we… don't frighten you? Shouldn't you at least be… more embarrassed seeing as we are both male?"

Tea thought about the second reason why she hated going to the store in the mall, where girls her age would walk around the woman's dressing section wearing things that sent her heart racing and heat to coil in dangerous places if she stared too long.

"Nope." Was Tea's simple reply.

"I mean it's like this;" Tea elaborated when the spirit raised his brows in confusion. "It doesn't matter to me if you two, or even Joey and Tristan were boys or girls, because… unlike a lot of people you guys treat me like… a human being."

Tea sighed, searching her brain for words to string together into sentences that made sense. "For the most part, for me at least, it doesn't feel like you care what my gender is because… I'm just Tea… your friend. You guys treat me really well for being a girl who doesn't act how a Domino high school girl is apparently supposed to act. And because of that I can't help but trust you to the point where I don't care what state of dress you see me in."

Tea shrugged, fidgeting awkwardly, it felt… a bit weird voicing things that had become commonplace truth for her. "I understand that you guys have some things that you prefer to keep to yourselves, some things that I like to keep to myself, and there are some _girl_ things that make you guys super uncomfortable, but even then you are all nice about it and you don't actively exclude me in any mean way solely because I'm not the same gender as you."

The spirit straitened, looking a bit proud despite the subject being embarrassing for him.

Tea sighed in relief thinking that it was over but like most of her interactions involving the subject of gender… or anything else that seemed to be bothering her, the conversation with these two boys was always far from over.

"What do you mean by unlike a lot of people?" This time it was Yugi who was asking, both the question and the sudden switch startling Tea.

"Well…" Tea started slowly. "You were there with me most of the time growing up, I'm sure that you noticed that… well you were kinda my only friend for a long time until we met Joey and Tristan."

"That's not true." Yugi insisted. "You used to have all of those play dates with the other girls in your neighborhood."

"Those were less like play dates and more like lets-torture-Tea sessions." Tea snorted bitterly. "My mom made me go to those things mostly to get the evil 'burb-moms off of her back. Those girls and I never got along, I wanted to play games or go out and catch slugs and they wanted to talk about boys and how they needed to look prettier, diet their little eight-year-old bodies away while putting on a ton of make-up…" Tea's breath hitched as she resolutely shook her head to get rid of the memories.

"They… weren't too pleased that I… wasn't like them. Refused to be like them, and the boys in my neighborhood never wanted to play with me either because… well according to them being a girl… meant that I couldn't play with them. That whole; " _boys only_ " rule remember?"

Yugi grimaced; he remembered that aspect of his childhood very well. He and Tea shared an understanding look, because they had both heard that rule used against them, Tea because she was a girl, and Yugi because he was too gentle and a pacifist for the other boy's liking.

"The rules have both changed… and not changed since we've gotten older, aside from you four and Ryou, I still find it… difficult, to make any friends my age outside of you guys. The only thing I really know for sure is that me being a girl is still the same major issue, but I haven't the foggiest of clues as to how it's such an issue with the other _girls_ at our school… the boys on the other hand, a lot of them are real creeps. They only like to pretend to be my friend so that they can try their luck guilt-tricking me into a date… or worse." The girl muttered darkly, thinking back to all of those same, tired arguments where she tried to be nice to some guy whom she wanted to be friends with, only to find out that they hadn't been interested in being friends with her at all.

They always kept insisting that there was something more between them, tried to manipulate her by calling her selfish for not giving it a try, even going as far as to insult her intelligence by telling her that boys and girls couldn't just be friends.

"I'm sorry that you've had to be dealing with all of that." Yugi said putting a comforting hand on her arm (he was way too short to comfortably reach her shoulder).

Tea smiled reassuringly. "Well at least I don't have to worry about one of you guys trying to ask me out even though it's painfully obvious that I'm not attracted to any of you."

She bit her tongue and winced when Yugi looked away guiltily. Crud. She had forgotten for just a split second…

"Or at least not hate me or phase me out of your lives if I don't feel the same way?" Tea amended sounding small.

"I'd- we would never hate you for not feeling a certain way." Yugi promised with enough severity and honesty that Tea visibly relaxed.

"Sorry." Tea apologized looking at him sadly. "For scaring you with beating up those goons so suddenly and… other things."

Yugi smiled at her. "Tea Gardener, I've never known you to ever be quiet when you or your friends were in danger." He declared with a laugh as if he found the idea of her being a damsel hilarious. "And I'd much rather have you as my best friend than not have you in my life at all."

She drew him up into a bone-crushing hug. "Thank you." She sniffled blinking back tears.

It wasn't exactly the confession either one of them had been expecting or fretting about for years, but it was enough to get the point across and it was enough to soothe away the fears that the both of them had about losing their best friend to complicated feelings or the distinct lack of complicated feelings.

Crushes and the pressures of societal norms paled in the face of the love between two close friends after all.

The two broke apart at the sound of somebody cackling to themselves outside the warehouse door.

The two teens smirked at one another.

"Business as usual?" Tea asked just to make sure there was no more lingering jagged edges or misunderstandings left from the metaphorical surgical removal of the unspoken expectation that the two of them had to be anything more than what they were.

"Totally." Yugi assured with a wide smile, just as their latest foe burst through the door and began shrieking at the sight of his fallen lackeys.

"You wanted a duel I presume?" Yami Yugi asked the other duelist with amusement. "Well since you're already here I suppose it wouldn't hurt to oblige you in your defeat."

Tea snickered as the bad guy went into a long-winded speech about the king of games title, soon shaking her head in disgust when the punk was defeated in six turns.

She realized that the other had seemed to forget about the tattoo, which was perfectly fine by her.

"C'mon I'll by you two something from Burger World in celebration." Tea offered, ignoring their fallen enemy as he ranted and wept pitifully on the floor.

"I can't say no to that offer." The spirit grinned and held out his arm.

She grinned back as she took the offered limb and the three friends exited the building.

"Do you remember the ride over here being long enough to land us in… Osaka?" The Spirit asked confusedly once they had walked close enough to a road sign.

"No, but then again I was too focused on other things to really notice the length of the car ride." Tea admitted, looking around dazed. "But hey, that sign says that there's a burger place next to the train station about half a mile from here, might as well enjoy some sights and good food while we walk over to catch a train."

"I wonder if they've got frozen oranges…" The spirit wondered as they started walking again.


	7. Broken coin T Coinshipping

Author's note:

For those who do not know;

Miho is a character from the Yugioh season zero anime and in one of the episodes the writers had this character declare that she had bought special lingerie to impress somebody whom she was going on a trip with… which had latter been revealed to be her mother…

Tea's character was even less developed, and… well the character as a whole was pretty much more female degrading in the season zero series than in the DM series, but aside from that one glaring flaw, I still love season zero the best which is why I'm making references to it in my writings.

Although I will admit there were some things with season zero that were… incredibly strange…

So in this, little drabble I decided to try to be equally strange!

XXX

Broken coin

Tea's lips narrowed to a thin line quickly looking out the window, her guilt overwhelming to the point where she could not look her friend in the eye.

"Why is Miho being so cold?" Tristan pouted sulkily his head lying on their joined desks. "First time I see her since she transferred schools over the summer two years ago and she acts like we were never friends. Not even stopping long enough to explain why she hasn't kept in touch before walking away like I'm… like I wasn't anything."

Tea winced, her thoughts turning to a day long past, _Miho's bedroom had been a little messy, had always been a little messy, compared to the rest of the often empty, immaculately clean apartment. Miho's silky long blue hair swayed gently in the warm breeze of the open window as she giggled about something that had caused Tea's heart to break._

 _"Miho is so happy she finally has a date with the head of the track team, he's sooo dreamy!" Miho had giggled as she had danced around in her underwear bottoms and held up a dress that was incredibly short in the skirt to her frame and admired herself in the mirror._

 _Tea froze in her attempts to both zip up her skirt and find where her socks had landed after they had been thrown off during the hazy frenzy of kisses and touches from earlier._

 _"What?" Tea croaked her voice small and hurt._

 _"He's got a friend… ah Miho forgot his name, but he's interested in you too!" Miho continued unhearing. "We can double date! Wouldn't that be fun? I heard them talking the other day about how they think that two girls doing this and that with each other was super hot!" The girl giggled some more oblivious that Tea was now clutching her chest and staring at her in horror. "We can all have fun if that really is true! Just like how we have fun when we aren't busy dating boys!"_

Joey looked at Tristan flatly. "Maybe ya said somethin' dat made her mad." The blonde suggested.

"I don't think saying; "Hey Miho, how have you been?" is going to make her mad." Honda growled.

"I mean before yesterday, like back when she was still here." Joey continued unwavering. "I hate t' point this out t' ya man but you was pretty creepy when she was around."

"Hey!" Honda protested, highly offended.

"You did speak at length about how the two of you were going to get married and have a whole bunch of children." Tea grumbled her mood darkening. "I know that she… was the type that didn't mind talking about that stuff with her actual, very numerous, boyfriends… but still, very creepy, on both of your ends actually, especially since she was never serious with any of her… dates"

Immediately Joey and Yugi turned their worried gaze to Tea.

Oblivious Tristan seemed to be thinking his own dilemma over. "Was talking about that really that creepy?" Tristan asked nervously. "I mean you did say that is was common for her to talk about that kind of thing with her boy…friends? Wait, Miho had _boyfriends_ and in _plural,_ more than one?"

"And you keep tellin' me dat I'm de slow one." Joey muttered before turning his attention back to his female friend. "Do ya know somethin' 'bout dis Tea?" He asked.

 _"I have never dated boys!" Tea's hurt voice sounded like a death knell in the silence of the room. "I'm not even attracted to them!"_

 _Miho turned to her, confusion evident. "But what about Yugi?"_

 _"Yugi is like my brother!" Tea hissed violently. "And Joey and Tristan are my friends, as in just friends, I'm-not-interested-in-them-that-way friends!"_

 _Miho blinked at the severity of the other's tone. "Your weird." The girl stated her nose scrunching up._

 _Tea let out a hurt breath. "Yeah well your weird too considering what we've been doing for the past hour!"_

 _"That's not weird." Miho insisted sounding offended, her hands on her hips. "That was a good time! All girls are doing that now but it's nothing serious!"_

 _Tea felt like she had just been kicked in the gut._

 _Miho snorted. "Maybe you should let me fix you up with a boyfriend, it'll help you not be so weird. You honestly didn't believe that we were serious did you?" She asked lightheartedly, as if she weren't twisting the metaphorical knife in deeper._

 _Silence hung in the room like a foreboding fog._

 _Miho froze as the silence stretched. "Tea? You… you didn't actually think that… this was anything did you? I mean a pretty girl like you has got to have had at least one boy to fool around with in the past… It wasn't like I was your first kiss or your… first… right?"_

 _Tea looked up from the floor the combination of tears and the pure disgust and the hurt on her features making Miho step back._

 _"Don't tell me what to do." Tea's voice was small but it sounded loud in the quiet of the room. "I let people like you make me terrified of being who I am, I even tried forcing myself to like a boy, thank god he never took advantage of me like you did or else I would have been way more screwed up then before."_

 _Miho stepped forward. "Tea-"_

 _"Don't tell me who I am!" Tea snarled her eyes a livid brilliant blue. "If nearly getting blown up on that blasted Ferris Wheel and feeling so depressed that I started to wonder if it was for the best if I did die… if all of that did not change who I am then nothing will! Because I'm not weird, I am me, Tea Gardener! And firebirds don't let others shame them for their true natures!"_

 _Tea did not wait around for a reply, only having the presence of mind to grab her school bag and her shoes as she raced out the door, leaving behind a pair of socks and a jacket, which was an acceptable loss because she had plenty of socks and the jacket's pockets had been too small to put anything other than tissues and an embroidered handkerchief in anyway. Nothing worth doubling back to grab while Miho was quickly dressing, especially that handkerchief which had been a gift from Miho herself._

"Tea?" Tristan asked concerned, the girl was squinting at the window as if she was in pain or something.

"If I understood the complexity of the human female mind… well first off I'd have better luck making female friends, and secondly I'd probably be the richest person on the planet after I published a how-to manual on the subject." Tea stated bluntly still not looking Tristan in the eye. "Miho was an _especially_ confusing individual and for the life of me I still cannot comprehend _half_ the things she did."

"I had heard rumors…" Tristan mumbled sadly. "But I figured that it was just… guys being jerks…"

"You dodged a bullet." Tea said simply relaxing slightly when it became apparent that her friend was not going to yell at her for trashing Miho's non-existent honor. "Miho had me fooled for a while too with her sweet and innocent act… I don't know how much of those rumors are true but, with my thankfully little snippet of knowledge of her life, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a long trail of broken hearts left in her wake from the boys… and some girls…"

An embarrassed squeak broke Tea from her staring contest with the window, her three- well two, Joey didn't look as phased as the others- friends stared at her in shock.

Tea rolled her eyes thoroughly unimpressed. "Oh for the love of- we live in the freaking _twenty-first century_! That kind of thing is not weird or enough to warrant anybody getting stoned to death anymore, many places have made same-sex marriage legal, _New York_ being one of them by the way."

Tristan shuddered opening his mouth in preparation to speak.

"And before you start I'd like to remind you that not only do I expect you to _visit_ me in New York but I also train with many, not all mind you, of the same people who, _in the privacy of their own damn lives_ , swing in the way that makes you all squirm so uncomfortably." Tea cut him off, her tone turning freezing cold. "Plus you can't really go on talking about how uncomfortable you are in front of me like some prudish Victorian lady without sounding like a hypocrite since I only pretended I didn't know what that _tentacle_ _pump girlz_ video was about when it fell out of your bag the other day. And the ugly truth is that the reason why I know about that particular video in the first place was because some actual, very nice and respectable lesbians that I train with, _and who treat me with respect_ , have been laughing over the unrealistic inaccuracy and ridiculousness of this supposed "most popular" video for. _Weeks_. So please save those comments for when I'm out of the room."

Tea decided that Joey was her current favorite best friend of the day, for the boy was clapping her on the shoulder and trying so hard not to burst something while he suppressed his laughter at the expressions the other two were making.

Under her stern glare Yugi's eyes looked as though they were threatening to invade the rest of his glowing red face and his body seemed to shrink as if trying to hide.

Tristan looked like a frightened deer caught in the path of a hunter with a really big gun, his hands meekly held up in surrender as she continued to glare.

And then a thought seemed to strike him, because Tristan turned from nervous to contemplative, and that in turn made _Tea_ nervous.

"Is it…?" He hesitated. "Is it alright if I ask how you know all of this exactly?"

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want." He added quickly when Tea's expression crumpled into depression.

 _She wanted… me to help her get guys… in a way that not only was I uncomfortable with but… I just… don't want to do those kind of things for some idiot boy's entertainment at my expense. I was falling for her, she used me, and I was the fool who fell for it._ Tea thought bitterly as she gritted her teeth emotions feeling raw.

The girl looked away, her eyes flashing hot from residual anger. "She thought that I was like her for some reason, that… she could use me to get guys, she was dead wrong because I'm not like her _at all_!"

"I… didn't want you to know." She confessed after a heavy silence, she still could not look at her friend, the friend who she had betrayed by sleeping with his crush, the girl he thought he had a chance with, the girl she thought had wanted her just as much as she had wanted Miho. "It- the situation embarrassed me and when she didn't speak to any of us the rest of the summer and didn't return to school… I had just wanted to forget, and I didn't want you getting hurt with the truth… which was all for not seeing as you got hurt anyway."

She had hoped that his feelings for Miho had been… well less severe than her own, which was probably the case seeing as how at the time Tristan had been swooning over both Miho and Joey's little sister Serenity.

Tea recalled that Joey had been ticked off about that for months.

She still felt guilty, even though Tristan had not been as serious as she had been, it was one thing to date (although Tea supposed that those dates had all been one sided) one of your friend's former crushes to his face but behind his back? Sure Tea had been shaken up by nearly being killed off on a Ferris wheel of all places by some psycho with a flare for the dramatic, and had wanted desperately to embrace being alive… but it was still a cold thing to do.

That and she was pretty sure not even one of her friends was suspecting that their lone female friend was… well understood exactly what they were talking about when a cute woman walked past.

"Don't ya worry 'bout da drama queen ovah here." Joey frowned, squinting his eyes warningly at Tristan. "'Specially since he'd been eyein' my sistah an' every other girl with a pulse at the time… still is by da way. So's don't stay quiet for his sorry sake if ya was hurt… were ya hurt?"

Tea shrugged nervously. "Well I was… disappointed she turned out to be the kind of person I didn't want to be around." She answered looking shifty.

"Dat wasn't what I was talkin' 'bout an' you know it." Joey stated flatly his accent getting thicker.

"What other kind of hurt could she have done to Tea other than not being a good friend?" Yugi asked timidly making Tea blush bright red and glare at the ceiling.

"I'm over it!" Tea declared her patience snapped. "And it's still too embarrassing for me to talk about so just rest assured that I have _moved on_!"

"So you _was_ hurt in another way!" Joey zeroed in being unusually insistent on the issue.

Tea prayed for a distraction.

"Who's Hurt?" A stern baritone voice asked, making Tea mouth a silent "thank you" to whomever was in in the higher power department.

Yami Yugi looked around the joined desks worriedly. "I had fallen asleep, did something happen while I was out?"

"Tristan's acting all heartbroken because Miho is pretending that she had never met him." Tea jumped in still grinning at the ceiling.

The spirit furrowed his brow as he searched his memory. "Mi-ho? That odd old friend of yours who bought fancy undergarments to impress her mother when they went away on a trip together? What happened to her by the way? She hasn't been around as much-?"

The spirit blinked at the wide-eyed stares directed his way. "What?" He asked.

"This explains so much." Tea spoke in awe, suddenly feeling much better. "I thought that it was weird that Miho liked to wear her mother's dresses while she was away on business…" Tea's good mood fell a little when she remembered something.

"…I guess she was lying when she said that she felt more comfortable in a size too big…" Tea realized with growing horror that the "fancy garments" that Miho used to wear to bed, that had made the other girl squeal in delight when they had found out that they had fit Tea almost like a glove… weren't Miho's lingerie…

"Oh. My. God…" Tea stated weakly.

"Why would she want to impress her mother with those kind of clothes?" Tristan asked his brain working to find an innocent explanation.

"FOR SICK AND WRONG REASONS THAT'S WHY!" Tea roared, jumping up out of her seat, and shaking her finger in the boy's face.

"You dodged a bullet I tell you! A bullet filled with crazy Oedipus complexes and excessive talking in the third person! And if I ever hear you sulk about for such a person like that ever again I'll smack your face off and let you eyeballs roll all over the dirty floor and feed your lips to my cat! No one should feel bad for someone that is nearly fully grown who likes to get herself and her friends to walk around in her mother's clothes and underwear-" The girl convulsed clamping her hands to her mouth.

"I think I'm gonna hurl." Was the only warning Tea gave them before racing out of the room, nearly bowling over a very surprised Ryou and Seto Kiaba as she ran past.

Yami Yugi turned his bewildered gaze to the other three wide-eyed males surrounding the table. "I get the feeling that I'm missing the more important aspects of this conversation aren't I?" He asked.

"What is the matter with your friendship worshiper Yugi?" Kiaba demanded as he stalked towards the group. "Has she finally cracked?"

"Lay off money bags! She just found out that someone she used 't know tried 't turn 'er into der ma 't feed their Oedipus complex." Joey growled looking in the direction of the girl's departure with worry.

"… I don't know what's more disturbing; that sentence, or the fact that the mutt said something intelligent." The CEO eyed the blonde worriedly.

"I can be smart when it suits me." The blonde sniffed turning his nose up at the taller male.

"What's an Oedipus complex?" Yami Yugi asked Tristan.

"Some sort of literary referenc… I think… I don't know man, literature class puts me to sleep." Tristan replied with a mystified shrug.

XXX

After school and after a lengthy explanation of the Greek tragedy involving the character Oedipus and of the topic of the previous conversation (which had caused Kiaba to skitter quietly away in a manner that was suspiciously like a spooked cat) Ryou proposed that they all bring cookies and cake to comfort their friend with.

They had arrived at Tea's house just in time before the girl had started her sixth shower, and just in time to soothe over the worried, nervous nerves of Tea's mother who had come home from shopping to find her daughter taking scalding hot showers and mumbling to herself that she needed to _bleach her brain_.

Tea would later admit that the cake helped, even though the silence had been awkward and the weird TV show that her mother had prescribed (the second season of something called Twin Peaks), to attempt to bleach their brains, caused the spirit of the puzzle to drive himself nearly crazy just trying to figure out what the heck was going on (Ryou however seemed quite taken with the show… strangely enough).


	8. Fruit Mix T Side

Fruit mix

"So 'Ren's mentioned dat she wants 't have sex wit ya." Joey informed Tea casually while they and the usual suspects were having lunch outside in the tiny excuse the Kame Shop had for a backyard.

Tea nearly inhales her drink, grabbing a napkin to cough into, then grabbing more to blow out the liquid that escapes into her nose.

She gets off lightly, Tristan chokes on a piece of food, and Atem's hand, frozen in place as he tries to quietly steal some of Yugi's fries, becomes drenched in fry sauce from a now practically empty squeeze bottle clenched in a startled Yugi's death-gripped fist.

Joey looked around guiltily. "Sorry guys I shoulda been more subtle." He apologizes handing the former spirit some extra napkins and rubs Tea's back as she violently blows her acidic drink out of her nose.

"Wa- water!" Tristan coughs after he dislodges the bit of food from his windpipe, grabbing for Tea's water bottle with tearing eyes.

Three sets of eyes widen in horror.

" _Wait!_ " Joey and Tea warn reaching out but their hands falling short

" _Tristan, don't!_ " Yugi exclaims flinging the hand with the squeeze bottle so fast that the remaining sauce inside splatters across his startled partner's face.

Tristan casts them all a confused look as he chugs down a swig of Tea's drink.

"NNNMMM?!" The brunette boy squeaks his lips puckering and his cheeks disappearing between his teeth.

Tristan flails his arms as Joey and Yugi move to help their friend to the ground, suddenly finding that he is unable to breath.

"Inhale man! Inhale!" Joey orders slapping Tristan on the cheek.

"I for'gt how!" Tristan snaps back finally filling his burning lungs with much needed air.

"Are you alright?" Tea asks the sputtering boy in concern.

"That was the most horrible thing I have ever tasted!" The other brunet howls dramatically.

Tea straitens looking a little offended. "Tasted alright to me…" She grumbled picking up her abandoned water bottle and taking a pointed gulp of the liquid inside, smacking her lips in satisfaction once she swallowed without difficulty.

Tristan gaped disbelievingly, shaking his head. " _Why?_ " He demanded coughing slightly. "What is _in_ that?"

"Orange juice, pomegranate juice, lemon juice, and some coconut milk for something different from the usual." Tea listed out on her fingers.

"It helps prevent illness and sore throats." The girl explained to Tristan and Atem's appalled faces. "Though next time I may have to cut out the coconut, makes it a little too sweet for my liking."

She shifts uncomfortably under Tristan and the former pharaoh's stares while Yugi and Joey share a look and simultaneously shakes their heads.

"You said something about my girlfriend?" She asks stiffly, sitting back down.

"Ah, yeah… 'Ren said somethin' 'bout havin' sex wit ya." Joey jumps back into the previous conversation, getting up to sit back down in his seat beside Tea.

"Dude! What happened to that _subtlety_ you promised us?" Tristan griped from the ground.

Tea flushes; rapidly shaking her had side to side. "We haven't, I swear Joey I have not touched your little sister in that way, she's way too young and I respect that-"

"Relax Tea." Joey chuckled clapping his friend on the back. "I know ya have been treatin' my sistah right. She's da one who said 't me dat she wants to go dat far wit you."

"Is that a normal thing for siblings to talk about in this era?" Atem asks his boyfriend as he stares at Joey with his one, non-sauce covered eye.

"No." Yugi informs simply, dutifully cleaning the other's face with a napkin.

Tea turns bright red, covering her face with her hands. "Why is she telling _you_ these things?" She demands completely mortified.

"'Cause dat's how she an' I do things." Joey shrugs. "An' she's under da impression it's 'cause of me dat ya won't do nuthin' past hold her hand an' kiss her sweetly at da door."

"You're not the main reason why I'm not going any further." Tea assured though her fingers. "It's only been five months, and she's not even sixteen yet! I'm the one who want's to take things slow, I… I don't want to become a regret for her to look bitterly back on." The girl confesses sullenly, looking down. "My first few, disastrous attempts at dating other girls were… oh geeze, I never ever want Serenity to have those kind of experiences from _anyone_."

Tristan, who had finally crawled his way back up to his seat, was the first to speak. "You had girlfriends before?" He asked, brows rising as high as they would go.

"I was terrified of coming out to you guys at the time so I hid it from you." Tea defended covering her eyes with her hand. "Terrified and completely lost at just where I was to even begin going about finding others of the same orientation, and for future reference; Domino High, not the best of places to look for a proper girlfriend, a closeted hook up maybe, but the available dating pool there is… actually kinda scary, or at least the ones that I had tried my luck with were…"

The girl shrugged self-consciously. "At the time I had been keeping so many secrets about my sexuality from all of you that I figured that if I ran the risk of losing you all to this unchangeable aspect of myself, I might as well go all the way you know? But then Kiaba and Joey happened and Atem got a body of his own and it turns out that you and Yugi had been together for over a year and a half, and Tristan was being super supportive… and suddenly this weight lifted from my shoulders and I could look you guys in the eye again." Tea confessed apologetically.

Yugi raises a brow. "You aren't hiding any more secret from us are you?" He asks, not sounding hurt… disappointed maybe but he was hardly one to talk about keeping a secret significant other on the side.

Tea thought about it. "Aside from the identities of my failed attempts at romance… I can't think of anything at the moment, but if I do I'll tell you."

Yugi's other brow raised to join the other. "You need to think about it? As in you don't remember all of your secrets?" He asked incredulously, grabbing more napkins and setting to work wiping off his boyfriend's hands.

"Well I am counting the hellish period of time before I had accepted I was gay! So much had been going on personally at the time that I sort of… lost track of things as time wore on." Tea defended throwing her arms up. "Back when you had first solved the puzzle I had been so wrapped up being concerned on why I wasn't acting and feeling the same things as the other girls, and trying to keep my previously assumed abnormalities a secret that it had barely registered to me that you had suddenly started acting strange! And by the time I realized that there was this whole other "you"… let's just say that if I was in any sort of sane frame of mind I would have demanded that mister spirit over here cough up what exactly his intentions were toward you like any good friend should!" The girl declared half-heartedly giving the mentioned former spirit the stink eye, making the boy blink at her in surprise.

"You were acting pretty strangely…" Yugi mused. "Come to think of it… did you stop dancing in that period of time?"

"How did you know?" Tea blinked taken aback.

"When we went to the water park your feet and legs weren't bruised or sporting any injuries." Yugi explained. "I've helped you bandage up more than once after ballet and your other dance classes, how could I have missed that?" The boy asks himself mystified, a deep frown marring his features.

"Probably the same reason why I had still tried being "normal" after Yami had to save my butt from that Ferris wheel." Tea grumbled at the table, angry with herself. "I had seen a gorgeous police woman and immediately focused more on controlling my raging hormones instead of doing the sane thing and kissing the ground in thanks that I was even _alive_."

Joey and Tristan looked at one another before turning as one to the two oldest friends.

"We don't want to talk about it." Yugi and Tea spoke in unison.

"It's still kind of a sore spot." Tea explained.

"It wasn't exactly the greatest of times in regards to our friendship." Yugi sighed realizing that at that particular point in time the both of them had been so focused in their own personal dramas that they had ended up neglecting each other. It hurt knowing that they had been, literally, standing next to each other and yet had been so blind that the other was hurting.

Atem kissed his cheek and nuzzled his neck in comfort; Yugi could feel the other's love and… a slight hint of guilt through their link, no doubt feeling a little responsible for the temporary rift between the two old friends.

Tea couldn't help but grin at the open display; the couple was so _cute_ together.

"I'll talk to Serenity." Tea promised. "Let her know that my being a prude isn't about either you or her, it's all me."

"Ya gonna mention your past wit datin'?" Joey asked.

"I'm going to have to… why?" Tea asked suspiciously.

"Ya better be vague when it comes 't names or descriptions." Joey advised cryptically. "Better yet maybe ya should tell me who dey were so dat if somethin' happens… I can save da rest of 'em from her wrath."

"Why would Serenity want to attack my old flings?" Tea asked confused.

"Ya haven't seen 'Ren when she gets inta one of her territorial moods." Joey realized with amusement.

"Do you really think that she'll get upset with me?" Tea asked worried.

"Not you…" Joey assured. "But ya did describe yer old flames as scary disastahs, _'Ren_ gets scary when she's gets protective of da people she loves."

"Little Serenity?" Tristan scoffs, smirking in disbelief. "No way."

"She threatened 't deep fry Kiaba's castrated balls an' leave him on da floor bleedin' while she goes 't slip dem inta da school's mystery stew special at da school if he ever hurt me to da point where I couldn't recover emotionally." Joey replied casually, as if it was only to be expected of his sister.

There was a pregnant pause where all eyes were on Joey as the information sunk in.

"…I approve of this form of punishment and I'd like to state now that if that ever needs to be done I will provide the alibi." Tea promised calmly as if deciding that the form of threatened violence sounded perfectly logical. "Maybe I can even lend a hand, I mean I've _heard_ more than enough theories on how to properly murder or maul someone without leaving very much forensic evidence from the talk in the girl's locker room… I wonder if any of those would hold water in practice…" The girl hummed. "Though I'm afraid that I probably wouldn't be much help if she wanted to do anything too gory, dead things and causing pain to things who can't fight back makes me a bit squeamish.

Yugi's eyes quickly resembled those of a spooked eye-eye. " _What?_ "

Tea made a vague hand gesture. "Well when the other girls aren't talking about boys, gossip, or describing morbid things in surprising detail like… well there was this one time some of the girls kept arguing about what suicidal method will leave the prettiest corpse- but that's a whole other story- they… well if enough boys tick off enough girls they talk about the best ways to go about…" She hesitates at the increasingly horrified looks on her friends' faces.

"Dey talk 'bout how 't kill or disfigah da guys who wronged dem." Joey finishes for her, taking a bite from his sandwich. "'Ren came home one day while I was visitin' an told me all 'bout it, she was pretty scared at da time 'cause she had just gotten healthy enough 't go 't school by herself an' so she wasn't used to dat kind of talk, but den ma sat us both down an' explained 't us dat it's just one of dose things dat girl's do when no one but dem is lookin'. An' apparently it's not a new thing 'cause I asked my gran, Tristan's sistahs, and Yugi's ma bout dis an' dey all said dat dey talked similar stuff wit dere female friends before too."

"…Thank the gods I'm gay."Atem murmured before taking a sip from his orange juice as Yugi and Tristan's horrified eyes stayed glued to their two friends sitting across from them.

 _Much later…_

"I can gouge their eyes out if you want." Serenity cooed cradling Tea's face lovingly.

"Thank you sweetie but I'd rather put them out of my life completely and just enjoy my time with you." Tea sighed, letting the younger girl guide her to rest her head onto serenity's chest and relaxing as the other held her close on the couch.

"That's the idea." Serenity kissed the top of Tea's head. "At least tell me the names of the really bad ones so that I can help annihil- I mean help you… avoid them?" She asked innocently.

"I heard that slip up dear, and as honored as I am that you are so willing to defend my honor, all but one of my past tries at romance were pretty much mucked up equally on both sides so there really isn't a need to go after them." Tea tried to placate, nervously drawing designs into the other's arm with her fingers.

Serenity pouted. "What about that one, wasn't she the first one? You said that she really hurt you, and from what I hear she was really creepy, like psycho-I-keep-my-mom's-skeleton-in-the-living-room creepy."

"Who's creepy?" Serenity's mother, the former Mrs. Wheeler walked into the living room with a frown, Joey was following her with a plate full of food.

"I was telling your daughter about my past failed attempts at dating girls." Tea tried to play it off lightly. "It's nothing, really."

"Oh good, ya have finally gotten around 't talking with her about it." Joey talked over a mouthful of food.

"I had just told you about all of this yesterday." Tea said to the boy incredulously.

"Yeah an' you waited 'til dis afternoon 't have did talk." Joey grinned at her cheekily, his eyes dancing as he prepared to rile his friend up for one of their usual debate arguments where they teased and confused one another in equal parts just for the hell of it. He liked that Tea could be just as ridiculous as he was, and he liked that she could hold her ground without going too far.

Before the two could get into their normal bickering routine Serenity startled Tea when she actually growled. "So you knew that Tea's first teenaged girlfriend used to make Tea dress up in older woman's clothes and lingerie and play house, and that it wasn't until later that Tea realized that the creep was putting her into her _own mother's_ clothing, and then had the nerve to say that she and Tea boinking every opportunity wasn't serious and that Tea should help her get guys by essentially becoming her own personal girl toy and prostitute? And you didn't tell me?" The youngest girl seethed at her brother, outraged.

"Sweetie I haven't told him any details!" Tea whispered frantically but it was too late.

Joey froze his sandwich just within range of his open mouth.

"Ya dated Miho?" He nearly yelped, his eyes wide and he pointed a surprised finger at his friend.

" _I_ thought we were dating." Tea hissed at him. "But as it turns out we weren't because it takes _two_ to date and she was under the impression that it was all just… a good time." She finished glumly.

"This Miho… she dressed you up in her mother's clothes?" The sibling's mother asked incredulously from behind the couch.

"I didn't know!" Tea groaned mortified that her girlfriend's mother had gained interest in this as well. "She just said, "try these on" and most of the clothes fit me! I was too glad to actually have a girlfriend to question it!"

"What's Miho's family name?" Serenity asked her brother.

"Don't tell her Joey!" Tea begged.

"Like hell I won't!" Joey proclaimed. "I can't lay a fingah on girls if dey hurt ya, but 'Ren can! Yer my best friend! I ain't gonna just sit back an' let dis stand! Ohmigod why didn't ya say somethin' sooner? No wondah ya were acting like ya got spit on by someone wit da plague all those months ago! Back when Yams let slip dat Miho was buyin' fancy underwear tryin' to impress her ma!"

"At the very least this girl needs some serious time in a psychiatric office." Joey's mother commented. "But this Miho is long gone and out of your life correct?"

"Last I heard she's pretending she never knew us." Tea muttered into Serenity's shirt.

"So let's just be thankful this girl is not around anymore and hold off on the blood thirst unless she comes around to bother you all ok?" The woman asked her children in a commanding tone.

"So we're allowed 't get 'er if she tries 't bother Tea or any of us in da future?" Joey asked carefully for clarification.

"Within legal reason, just don't get caught." The woman allowed.

Tea hid her blushing face as the family started to debate about what the conditions of the term "legal" were.


	9. Fish cafe' K Dance

Fish Café

"Tea you're working here? I could have sworn that I heard your boyfriend say that you worked at Burger World." Mai asked startling said girl as she walked past the blonde woman's table, Tea always guiltily got distracted by the giant fish tank that acted as a wall in the Domino Aquarium's café to pay much attention to what the customer's faces looked like.

"What boyfriend?" Tea made a face wondering which one of her friends the blonde was talking about. "I have four friends who are like brothers to me, no boyfriends are among them. And as for your question, I did work at Burger World for a while but I got tired of having to wear that god-awful uniform of theirs and get ogled by a bunch of creepy adolescent boys who acted like me being a servant girl was half of their fantasies realized, especially at the rate those idiots were paying me, so I applied for the job here where the pay and treatment of the employees is better and the uniforms are not only more women friendly but they also don't itch." Tea explained politely as she gestured to her black pants and blue short-sleeved shirt that was just baggy enough to make her boobs look smaller, forcing people to look her in the eye as she took their orders.

Mai raised her eyebrows. "You really hated working at the other place that much?"

Tea snorted. "It was a crappy first job, if I had known better I would have tried to interview at some other place from the very start."

Mai blinked. "That's strange because when I talked to Yugi the other day he said that you loved working at the crappy job."

Tea closed her eyes, looking pained.

"He was one those creepy adolescent boys wasn't he?" Mai concluded with a deadpanned expression.

"I am so going to embarrass him for this later." Tea swore. "I've got to break him of the habit of treating me differently every single time he's reminded that I'm a girl, he sometimes, not often thankfully, acts like I'm some sort of… alien just because I have different plumbing than him, it's never been a problem before, so I don't know why it is now." The girl huffed upset.

"I think you know why." Mai teased. "C'mon hun, it's obvious that he's working up the courage to ask you out."

Tea flinched. "I hope not, that would be a very bad idea…"

"But you two would be awfully cute together." A small frown formed on Mai's face. "And from what I've heard you guys have been practically joined at the hip since forever, that gramps of his along with both Joey and Tristan are all just waiting for him to gather the courage to ask you out and you two to start your storybook lifelong romance." There was an undercurrent of sarcasm in the woman's tone but Tea didn't feel like interpreting it at that point.

"I'm a lesbian." Tea sighed slightly irritated, she felt like she was at her limit with this so she put her hands on her hips and shot Mai a look that dared her to continue on about how she should run her own life without knowing Tea very well at all in the first place. "And even then Yugi is like the bother I always wish I had and the other one is… actually like and older brother figure so… yeah no, not ever happening."

Mai's eyes went huge, much to Tea's satisfaction.

"I'm guessing your friends don't have a clue about this." Mai guessed.

"I've started to drop hints left and right lately but they still haven't gotten the hint or given me enough to gauge what their reaction will be when I do eventually tell them." Tea shrugged trying to sound like it didn't bother her as much as it actually did trouble her, very deeply if she was obliged to be truthful about it. "They've been under the completely false idea that all of my past dates have been my attempts to make female pals to hang out with, like I always joke I need to have…" Tea looked away.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Tea asked curiously looking around; it was a really slow day, barely anybody was in at the moment. "No offence but this doesn't seem like your kind of scene… and I'm pretty sure that you've been here long enough to have heard that when full, this place is like a gay hot spot so…?"

"Actually… I came here to see if I could pick up a date…" Mai coughed awkwardly. "But it seems that I've come at a slow time for there to be very many single ladies around… that is… you wouldn't happen to be single would you?"

Now it was Tea's turn to be taken aback. "I am single." She nodded dumbly.

"So would you like me to take you out on a date after your shift ends?" Mai asked making Tea's head spin.

"I've actually got mermaid practice after this but… I'm done with that at six… so if you still want to around that time… I'd like to go on a date with you… I'd like it a lot actually…" Tea blushed playing with her fingers.

"Mermaid practice?" Mai asked curious.

"It's why there's no fish in the fish tank." Tea explained. "This place offers it's employees free lessons to learn how to swim in a silicone mermaid tail in exchange for the ones who have mastered the art to put on shows for the public, I'm interested in all kinds of dances, even ones underwater, and this would be a nice fallback skill when I need to get a part-time job while I study in New York and even after that, if I run into a string of dancing jobs that won't hire me because of my body shape or whatever, and I need to get employment."

"They're really that picky about dancers?" Mai asked brows furrowed.

"I'm one of the few in my dance studio who the instructors haven't managed to convince into getting surgery or take hormone shots." Tea stated with a shrug, Mai looked just as horrified as her friends did whenever she mentioned the subject. "I know that there are lots of different kinds of dances out there and lots of different jobs that go with them, I know that having a diverse skill set will give me, with keeping my body type, a chance at doing what I love." Tea sighed wistfully.

"Good for you!" Mai told her sincerely with more than a little strength in her words. "…Say can I watch?"

"Me at practice?" Tea asked. "Sure, we're allowed to have a friendly spectator or two if they want to watch."

"I look forward to it." Mai grinned flirtatiously, making Tea blush again.


	10. Semicolon tattoo T no pairings

Semicolon Tattoo (sequel to _Bra_ , mentions to _Broken coin_ )

The announcement board at the Domino high school entrance rarely gave Tea much reason to stop and look it over when it was off-season for many dance and theater projects going on around town, sometimes she was known to pin up some flyers for a show that she would be preforming in, but it really didn't hold much significance for her… save for one flyer.

The flyer in question had impacted her greatly once upon a time, though she often felt uncomfortable and embarrassed about how the series of events had transpired to lead her to taking a small little flyer's printed words to heart and eventually feeling… a sort of reluctant sensation of owing that flyer her life… which was an odd concept that again Tea didn't really like to think too hard about it and only showed any outward gratitude to said flyer by moving it to a less populated section of the announcement board, so that it had a less likely chance of being torn down by the janitorial staff, and every so often relocated other flyers that tried to cover the flyer she reluctantly owed her life to.

She really should have thought more of it when she had caught Yugi, who never paid any attention to the announcement board and probably was surprised to find that the school had one, staring with wide(r), spooked eyes at the flyer that she both owed her life to, and tried to pretend didn't exist most days.

He seemed to stare at her more often than usual that day, which a few weeks ago would have made her panic because she would have been petrified that he was working up the courage to ask her out on a date and that her immediate and necessary refusal to do so would end up in all of her best friends banning together as a group of guys and demanding that either she lie to Yugi and tell him that she liked him back or that they would leave her friendless and alone-

Tea inhaled deeply, calmly, subtly hugging herself until those thoughts settled because she, Yugi, and the spirit of the puzzle already had a surprisingly successful talk which entailed Tea admitting that she had no romantic feelings towards any of her male friends but still loved them all dearly in a completely platonic sibling sort of way and both Yugi and the spirit had been fine with that. Which was fantastic because if those two were fine with her just being their platonic friend for now and into the very far future then she didn't have to be so scared anymore and really, it was beyond wonderful that she could do things like hug and ruffle their hair without either one of them misinterpreting it as a romantic come on.

Tea was distracted from the issue of Yugi staring at her like he was fearful that she would disappear into a puff of smoke, by the realization that the last time she had felt safe enough to hug the stuffing out of Yugi was… well it was before her boobs had gotten so big, and it was before that one day that had very nearly shattered Tea's heart completely when Yugi had wriggled out of her hold like she had some sort of horrible disease and shyly stuttered that it wasn't right for a girl who was just a friend to hug him like that.

That day had been one situation of many that had led her into a downward spiral that Tea hated remembering just how… horrible it had been.

But that had been before Tea had made it completely clear that she had no interest in her friends romantically like that, and she was determined to show all of her friends that she didn't give a damn whether or not idiots who didn't matter thought that she was trying to seduce them by demanding platonic human contact that made her feel more secure and connected both personally and towards them.

Her thoughts trailed off for the rest of the day on that tangent; thinking about how Yugi seemed to not mind returning her hugs, and the spirit (who was obviously deprived of much human contact aside from Yugi) had little qualms with initiating hugs or putting an arm companionably around her shoulders or waist, and just seemed to try to absorb as much friendly human contact as he could.

Once he caught onto the fact that it was now safe to touch Tea Joey seemed to jump at the chance of Tea letting him put her in a fake headlock and petting her hair diabolically at Kiaba (something that never seemed to fail in distracting the CEO during one of their spats long enough for Kiaba to remember that they were all crazy in their own ways and that if he stuck around to argue with Joey the crazy just might latch on to him). When the blond boy had discovered last week that Tea was strong enough to lift him up with little difficulty he had no shame in demanding piggy back rides or for her to grab his arms and swing him in the air around in circles like he was just an overgrown six-year-old (she sensed that those were things that his father had done before the bastard had turned to booze and basically abandoned Joey at a young age). Oddly enough she didn't find herself objecting to Joey's demands as much as she thought she would have (not that she would have ever thought that she'd be put into that kind of situation with a nearly grown young man…).

Tristan (predictably) had been the one who seemed to have the most issues with her sudden campaign to be more tactile with her male friends. Often shooting Yugi terrified looks of apology whenever she hugged him when she said hello (never mind that she was also giving Joey a hug at the same time), and going completely ridged when she sometimes hooked her arm with his while their group was walking somewhere.

It would have become awkward enough for her to stop if Joey and Yami hadn't silently caught on to the real reason why Tristan was trying to stutteringly incorporate what was proper for high school girls to be doing when males were present and almost gleefully hooked their arms around Tristan's other one or (if the brunette male was being particularly unintentionally offensive) wrap an arm around his hip effectively making Tristan squeal like a girl and go back to acting normal.

The other boys must have had a private talk with Tristan sometime in the past week because he seemed more resigned about her giving him a hug or linking their arms and didn't try to say anything about what was proper for a girl, to which she was very thankful for.

Her thoughts had been forcibly brought back to the reasons why Yugi had been staring at the flyer and then at her for the rest of the day was while they were all on their way home from school and after Joey and Tristan had left them to go to their respective homes.

Yugi had a fiercely determined look in his eye when he had asked her if she would accompany him to the park for a little while to talk.

He didn't say a word after that save for when they had ordered grilled sandwiches and cheese stuffed giant pretzels from a street vender.

They had found an empty bench to sit on, Tea found herself torn between, eyeing Yugi worriedly, blissfully watching the buds and blossoms of the cherry trees all around them, and eating her food.

Yugi still didn't speak but after a while he reached into his bag and gave Tea a familiar looking flyer, the same flyer that talked about the semicolon tattoo project and what it stood for, as well as a number to a help line if anybody needed it.

Tea stared at the paper her friend had presented to her blankly, as blank as her mind had become until a tidbit of a memory swam forward and presented itself at the front of her brain.

"That's right, I never did tell you the story behind my tattoo." Tea's voice came out surprisingly nonchalant as she put the remainder of her food in her bag and deftly took the flyer from the boy's fingers, proceeding to stare at it in bewilderment.

"You've got a semicolon." Yugi pointed at her, sounding a little frayed.

"And some writing and some rainbow background colors behind the semicolon." Tea hummed. "After seeing this flyer I did some research into some ideas of what my little daily reminder should look like, after all I wanted something that I could stand having on my skin for the rest of my life."

"The flyer says that the people who get those tattoos are because they… because they…" Yugi couldn't finish, Tea looked over to see the fear on his face.

"Because they are depressed, suicidal, and/or have a mental illness." Tea finished humorlessly with a nod. "Or in my case, it was just depressed and suicidal."

She saw Yugi try to speak but his voice caught and he looked dangerously close to bursting into tears, so Tea took the initiative to answer his unspoken question.

"For as far back as I can remember I've always… been seen as a disgrace for not acting like how people think that a girl should act, like I said a few weeks ago, you… had been my only friend until we met Joey and Tristan."

Tea shrugged awkwardly. "I was able to ignore other people talking behind my back like I was some sort of monstrosity, I mean I had at least one best friend and that had been enough for me. But then puberty hit and I was suddenly hit from all sides with all of these expectations, of forcing my body to look like the girl's in the magazines, having crushes on boys, getting a boyfriend, spending middle school and high school walking the precarious line between being an ice queen for not giving it all up for some idiot boy and being a slut for doing just that, give up my dreams to become a dancer by getting married after high school graduation, becoming a frustrated housewife, and having nothing better to do with the rest of my life than pop out babies… and if I just so happen to follow the Gardener women family tradition, spend a few years of choking down tranquilizers so that I can be mellow enough to pretend that I'm happy until I get lucky enough for an accidental overdose… or arrange for my husband to… have a fatal accident."

The look Yugi gave her was a very special mix between disbelief and horror.

Tea shifted uncomfortably. "When I got my first… monthly cycle, My grandmother took me aside and showed me how to make this special powder out of the poisonous plants that she grows in her garden- let's just say that if you want to ever enjoy eating her special cookies you like so much, ever again, it would be for the best that I don't tell you how that all went down…"

Yugi continued to stare at her with that same look as before.

"Back on track." Tea redirected the conversation. "The point of all of this was that I had started feeling like a freak because I never found myself attracted to boys, or interested in girly things… and after a while I started getting scared that I'd lose the only friend that I had and end up all alone if I didn't… conform to how the other girls were acting. So I bought a bunch of girl and men's magazines and wrote down a list of observations of how the other girls I was observing at the time acted and started trying to act like a combination of the popular girls and the people in the magazines. I know that it sounds ridiculous but at the time I was almost paralyzed by the fear of being abandoned for not being the way everyone else seemed to want me to be."

"Which did not end up going well for me." Tea pointed out. "I gave up dancing in favor of dieting which had resulted in me losing a worrying unhealthy amount of weight, started acting like a jerk to you because all the popular girls were jerks with each other, and I got a job that paid terribly and had an incredibly ugly uniform, but I put up with that because the men's magazines said that there was nothing better than a girl who wore one of those uniforms and served food."

"The major problem that I ran into though was that even after going through all of that I was still considered weird by the other girls and boys because I had a bunch of guy friends and I wasn't trying to seduce any of you, and I was internally freaking out more and more each day because I just… I never found boys or men attractive! And no matter how much I stared at the magazine pictures I just couldn't manage to squeeze out the right emotions to make all of those love songs and poetry make sense! Now I still had the presence of mind not to use you, Joey, or Tristan to try to turn myself normal, I may have turned myself into a jerk, but I wasn't that far gone to be willing to risk losing you guys for the sake of trying to force myself to have a crush on one of you… but then the spirit came into the picture… who was obviously not my best friend but I kind of figured that he might have been some sort of… split personality… he seemed like a safe enough bet at the time for me to attempt to force myself into feeling feelings that I did not possess… and who at first glance appeared to be what girls seemed to be after in a silent, brooding, mysterious type…"

Yugi winced.

"Yeah, I agree that it wasn't one of my best ideas, and for the record I'd just like to say that I am very, very sorry for all the trouble that I had caused and any hurt, confused emotions that I made Yugi feel in the process. And I am very, very glad that Yami never turned out to be anywhere close to being a brooding, mysterious clichéd. Because Yami is a nice guy and an awesome platonic friend, and I'd much prefer feeling safe being around how he actually is… over how those mysterious types tend to side more towards physical and mental abuse towards their romantic girlfriends. Again I'm terribly sorry for those first few months that you awoke." Tea winced herself. "I just thought that if I could finagle feelings for the other Yugi then… maybe I could form feelings for Yugi and end up with the fairytale happily ever after that Tristan, Joey, and your family were all trying to hint to me that we should become."

"Grandpa didn't say anything that was out of line to you did he?" Yugi piped up, a long-suffering look crossing his face. "Because I know that mama would never say anything like that to you."

"He just wanted what was best for you, he's like almost any other traditional elderly figure that I've run into who wants their grandchild to have a halfway decent future wife, and he approves of me as your potential future one… he's been really hoping for that sort of development… though it will be completely heartbreaking now when I have to break the news to him that I won't ever be sporting your late grandmother's wedding ring, or have any use of the bridal magazines that he keeps sneaking into my bag-… but I'm sure he'll get over it." Tea tried to assure.

"He _what_?" Yugi yelped in outrage. "No wonder you were getting depressed and scared of losing me as a friend! Oooh I am going to have _words_ with him…"

"Please don't!" Tea begged. "He meant well! A little bit overly enthusiastic maybe, but he didn't mean anything mean like that I had to marry his grandson or else I was a demon woman who had to be cast out! Come on, you know how things were like in his generation and the need to marry the person your supposed to spend the rest of your life with while people were still young. At our age and younger in fact."

" _He's_ the one who didn't marry my grandmother until my father was _my age_!" Yugi snapped, looking vexed. "And I'm still not convinced that there probably isn't an old lady with a small tribe of children and grandchildren with spikey multi-colored hair living out in the rural parts of Egypt!"

"I'm sure he meant well?" Tea tried again.

"No, he just wants to see you in a wedding dress, and a bunch of Japanese great-grandkids running around with your looks and my hair!" Yugi gritted out savagely. "He _never_ got over the fact that none of his other children had kids, that my parents decided to stop at one kid, and that my mama never took it upon herself to give him any more grandchildren, even after papa passed. He is _not allowed_ to go behind my back and try to arrange my life and my best friend's life for us just so that he can be a grandpa again!"

"At least that's probably the better part of it." Yugi grumbled suspiciously, casting a jaundiced eye around him. "He probably thinks that I'm incapable of finding a date all on may own…"

"Well we all that's not true." Tea cooed sympathetically. "Vivian, Rebecca, and Kiaba all practically throw themselves at you constantly."

"I don't think that a ten-year-old and Viv- wait, Kiaba?" Yugi looked sharply over to his friend.

"I've seen his video library of practically every single duel you've ever played near a camera. He's got to have over a hundred hours of nothing but you, playing his favorite game. And a bookcase devoted to folders with things that were labeled with stuff like; "Yugi eating hamburgers", or "Yugi wears star print pajama set" and he had pictures! You'll have to forgive me of at least giving him the benefit of the doubt in thinking that he's into you and just so far into the closet that he really, really, _really_ doesn't know what to do, because if he isn't then that puts him in the creepy stalker territory and I've got some issues with that." Tea revealed in serious tones.

"I'm sure that there's a logical explanation for that?" Yugi squeaked, looking spooked.

"What does your other self think about this?" Tea asked, because the issue of Kiaba having all that stuff on her best friend was disturbing to her.

"I think that Kiaba and I are going to have a little talk about that very soon." Yami Yugi clasped his hands together, putting them between his knees, and stared out into the distance, not looking at all happy.

The conversation had gone off track, along with Tea's courage to continue on with dredging up the painful parts of her past.

"Well it's been nice getting all that off my chest, I'll be seeing you tomorrow." She started to get up.

"You still haven't explained why you got the tattoo." The spirit pointed out, casting her a knowing look.

Tea slumped back down into her seat. "You remember very well that whole catastrophe with the Ferris wheel." She mumbled at the ground sullenly.

"You jumped onto that Ferris wheel intentionally." The spirit spoke softly, knowingly.

"I jumped onto that Ferris wheel intentionally." Tea nodded not looking at the boy. "No matter how hard I tried I just could not fall in love with you, and if I couldn't fall for someone that even _Tristan_ admits to being exotically handsome then what hope did I have for falling for any boy and being normal? You have to understand that at the time I was scared, tired from lack of sleep, and _really hungry_ from having almost nothing to eat aside from diet juice and _rabbit food_ for weeks, I could have easily been diagnosed a certifiably insane… and at the time it sounded like a good idea in my head. I risk my life doing something stupid, hoping that in the midst of all the danger I would feel… something towards you that was of somewhat romantic nature, perhaps even die in the process of trying to achieve this but at the very least I would have an answer as to whether or not I was defective."

"And… I'm guessing that it didn't work?" The spirit asked, his tone sounded odd, like he didn't know how to feel about all of this, but Tea kept her head down.

"It did not." She confirmed. "And… that's when something really weird happened… you see my body was screaming at me to get off the exploding ride and back to safety on the ground, but… as I looked down at you, feeling nothing but platonic friendship and sisterly affection for you I-I…"

Tea squeezed her eyes shut. "I started to hope that you would never figure out that psycho's game in time to save me. All my life I had been told that there is only one good thing that a girl was born for and… I did not possess it; in the long minutes that it took you to solve the game I had managed to convince myself that I didn't deserve to stick around and continue to cause the people I cared about disappointment because I didn't fit perfectly into the expectations of how they wanted me to be."

The girl shook her head scrubbing her dry eyes with her hands (she had stopped crying over the issue long ago). "It was really weird seeing my hands hitting the side of the door demanding to get out and live while on the inside I had no conscious control over what my body was doing because my mind was too busy making peace with the fact that I was going to die soon."

"But I did save you." The spirit pointed out.

"For a long while I didn't know whether to thank you and kiss you, or hate you and hit you." Tea cast the surprised spirit a wry smirk. "I don't recall when I stopped wandering around in a shocked stupor, being half starved from actual food has this tendency to make remembering time frames difficult, but I do remember sometime that week I literally threw my salad and diet drink out the window and headed to the nearest place that would serve me a proper meatball sub and extra large chocolate strawberry ice cream, that I devoured with a gusto." Tea smiled at the memory, it was the most delicious sandwich and ice cream she had ever had.

"And while taking advantage of everybody including Yugi trying to figure out whether or not he had a double personality… I found myself doing the exact opposite of trying to fall for guys… Which had been fun, though I'll admit that I had been pretty reckless..." Tea found herself blushing at the memory of what she and Miho used to do for fun before the other girl broke Tea's heart.

"Then… another reality check slapped me across the face and I realized that all of those people who had ever told me, and would still continue telling me that I was somehow defective for not being who they expected me to be, it wasn't my problem. If they were so determined to make me out to be the bad guy for just being my natural self then that was their issue not mine. But I was always kind of scared that I might revert back to that destructive state, then one day I saw this flyer and decided to get a permanent reminder that I never had to feel like I had to conform to other's ideals." Tea shrugged innocently.

Tea startled when she was suddenly enveloped in a very tight hug her face suddenly found itself buried in a surprisingly soft head of spikey hair.

"Don't scare us like that again okay?" Tea didn't know whom the muffled voice belonged to, Yami or Yugi (it could have been both of them for all she knew). She noticed that there was a growing dampness on her shoulder. "If you ever feel that bad ever again you tell us yes?"

Tea tentatively returned the embrace. "Yes, I promise." The girl swore after a stunned moment. "I'm sorry for giving you two such a fright."

"You are loved for the person that you are Tea Gardener. Don't forget that your friends care about you too." The boy sniffled.

"Okay." Tea nodded. "I won't forget."

XXX

 _Firebirds live their own damn lives in their own damn ways._

Tea smiled fondly at the backward image of the words written on her chest, right over where her heart beat beneath the skin and bone, she stood topless in front of the bathroom mirror and just let herself bask in the feeling of being loved enough to feel like she fit into her own skin.


	11. Laughing Gas T Myst

Laughing gas

"Why am I the one that has to do this?" Tea demanded as she drew another card. "Why couldn't you ask Tristan to duel you?"

Seto Kiaba cast the girl an incredulous look. "Does your friend look like he can play a game?" He pointed his chin to said boy who was currently grinning stupidly at the ground, his face swollen from the wisdom tooth surgery he had just gotten out of.

"Well maybe he's not capable to play by the rules of a sober person… but I still say that it would have been an interesting game!" Tea insisted.

"You're the one who challenged me!" Seto pointed to the girl accusingly.

"Not to win." Tea rolled her eyes. "Just to stall you long enough until Yami or Joey gets here with the car."

Seto gaped at the girl. "Why would you-?"

"I'm a pwetty pwincess!" Tristan giggled sluggishly.

"Yes you are." Tea agreed.

"You has a pwetty bum! Cans I touch?" Tristan batted his eyes pleadingly as his head bobbed in a way that made it obvious that he was trying to look up his friend's skirt.

"No. Not today." Tea told the boy sweetly.

"But I is a pwincess an' you are a l-l- wesbian! Wesbians let pwincesses toooouch~!" The boy pouted, doing his damnedest to crawl over to Tea without falling over onto the sidewalk. "You is datin' dat pwetty museum lady! I sometimes have this fantasy of the two of you in harem outfits but it never ends well because I get too guilty thinking about yous like dat, and every time I think about you in harem clothes I think about the two of you and the pharaoh and-"

"I summon Marshmallon!" Tea declared quickly, her hands a flurry of movement as she made the creature appear on the playing field. "Ooh look Tristan, look at the cute monster and not your best friend's assets." She pled with a hint of desperation in her tone.

"Ooooh!" Tristan sat back down and bobbed his head like a drunken barn owl at the bewildered monster.

"I was on my last nerve you see." Tea sighed turning her attention back to Kiaba. "The ride was almost a half hour late and you had walked out of the dentists and I knew that you always carried more than one duel disc with you in your car… sorry if I didn't make my actual intentions known earlier, but in actuality I just needed something to distract him. I'd feel terrible if I had to smack him away or knock him over the head for touching me and once he sobers I know that he'd never forgive himself if he ever did touch me!"

"…You know if you had just asked _even I_ would have taken enough pity on you to help keep him off of you. You didn't have to declare that he duel me or that you would duel me in his place." Seto sighed, long suffering. "Maybe you should call Wheeler and… _Yami_ , and tell them that I came by to help wrangle this one home."

Tea shook her head. "Yami still doesn't know how to work a cellphone and Joey has a strict no answering calls while driving rule, the best thing that you can do to help me is to keep summoning random monsters once he gets board and let me ride with you to someplace to where I can at least walk back home safely this late in the day because I would prefer that I don't have to ride in a confined space with this one… and if you really do have somewhere important to be maybe you could be so kind as to loan me a duel disc… or rope, rope would work just fine."

"Rope is kinky~!" Tristan laughed. "So are tentacles! I own this video that-"

"Kiss him Marshmallon!" Tea ordered her monster. "Please! Just to get him to stop being so embarrassing in front of children!"

Seto shared a look with the Blue Eyes White Dragon he had summoned and slumped his shoulders in resignation, he eyed the other brunette boy as Tristan waved his arms around in alarm, as the giant pink thing attached itself his face, contemplatively.

"You know… my phone has a camera in it…" Seto began.

"Go ahead, he's given me enough trouble that I'm actually in a blackmailing sort of mood." Tea growled. "Yami and Joey had better have a good reason or else all three of them are going to owe me for the next three years."

XXX

"Is there a reason why you're curled up in the corner?" Isis asked her girlfriend once she spotted the younger girl hugging her knees and squeezed between the washer and dryer.

"Tristan turns into a perverted truthful thing when he's high on laughing gas." Tea mumbled as she took out her phone and began playing the footage Kiaba had sent her.

" _Tristan for the last time I don't think about Tea that way_." Yami's voice came out disgruntled.

" _But you've at least thought about what she'd look like in a harem dress right? I mean it's not weird to think about her like that right? I mean she's super hot even though she says that she's not into guys, and- and even though she told me that she is not ever going to be a stripper in a tentacle porn video. It's a real shame that_ _she never ended up with either you or Yugi, I was rooting for you guys to score with her I mean she'd look super sexy in a harem outfit and laid out across your lap and she's like, Yugi's only chance of getting it on with a hot girl ya' know? I mean that's just how it works right? The childhood best friend always ends up with the guy in the movies! Not that her dating Isis is something wrong or anything, I mean Tea's my best friend and I have some serious respect for her landing a super hottie like that, and two hot chicks are better than one, but it's just sad that there won't be any cute kids running around with her looks and your guy's hair like me and gramps were hoping for and what's with you and Yugi suddenly getting together? It just doesn't make sense that I'm the only one born-"_ Tristan's voice continued to ramble on.

Isis could see the ex-pharaoh on the tiny screen drop his blabbering burden onto the grass and turn away with both hands in the air as if to demonstrate that he had given up on his friend.

" _Man shut up_!" Joey's voice called out from somewhere off screen. " _Tea's yellin' at da sky in English and I can assure you dat it aign't anythin' pretty dat she's talkin' to your maker about, and Dark Magician Girl doesn't look too happy either!_ _Kiaba's recordin' you on his phone for yer future children t' see! Be ashamed of yourself man_!"

" _How is he still talking_?" Seto Kiaba's voice wondered. " _Doesn't talking hurt for someone who just had his wisdom teeth removed_?"

" _He'll be hurtin' later_." Joey's voice assured. " _But from talkin' so much or from Tea killin' him, I dun know…_ "

" _I could have sworn dat Tea liked dudes_ …" Tristan pouted. " _I mean she wants to eventually pway Dark Mag-Magigian gwirl on Broadway an' dat mean dat she gots to wear dat smexy outfit an' she's just too hot t' be gay! Not dat der's anyfing wrong wif bein' gay, but are you guys sure dat you not experamentin'? 'Cause you two getting' married an' makin' babies after a few short years of Tea being miss dancy pants would be so… right ya know? I means she'd make such a cute wife! Stayin' at home takin' care of the pwetty little kids while you or Yugi is off doin' mansly works_ -"

There's a an audible animalistic snarl in the background, the camera catch's a brief glimpse of a wide-eyed and petrified Joey as the screen focuses on an enraged Tea just barley being held back by Yami, the boy muttering a string of; " _Don't kill, don't kill, don't kill's_ " to his friend as he struggles to keep her calm.

" _Dark Magician Girl_ …" Tea began, a fire in her eye. " _He insulted you too, don't kill him, but if you could please just_ …"

" _Don't finish that_!" The pharaoh hissed making Dark Magician Girl pout in disappointment. " _Weren't you the one to warn us about how the drugs might effect him to the point where he wasn't himself_?"

The Tea in the real world paused the video and put her phone away.

"…At least Malik just thought that he was a cow for an hour…" Isis commented in the ensuing silence.

"Tristan still doesn't know about the Ferris wheel." Tea hummed, looking to the floor. "And I already knew that all of his friends turning out to be gay or bi-sexual is difficult for him to grasp, and I knew that he had just assumed that me and either Yugi or Yami would end up together, and that his personal values are severely traditional… but he's been good about it, trying to not let it bother him and slowly starting to accept. I can't bring myself to be too mad at him."

"Can I at least be irritated with him?" Isis asked. "Or laugh at him the next I see him? I know that he's your friend, and that he was inebriated, and that you love him dearly, but I honestly don't think that I'll be able to look at him for a while without either wanting to kick him or make fun of him. I just might rupture something if I held that in, I'm sure of it."

"I'm more bemused than upset now." Tea sighed. "Kiaba recounted a time a businessman got so drunk at some banquet that he pulled down his pants and started yelling at the ice sculpture, so that made me feel better. Besides Yugi's more sensitive about anything relating to me being referenced as an object or a traditional wife than I am, he can get pretty intimidating when the people he cares about are hurt… or reminded of past hurts."

The girl smiled slightly. "I already texted him saying that I forgive Tristan and hold no ill will towards him. I'm mostly just weirded out that he had actually thought about me and those type of things involving me… it's a lot like hearing your brother admit that he used to have dreams of you naked and that is what is weirding me out."

"As your girlfriend I'm not sure how I feel about him thinking about you like that at all." Isis's lips thinned. "Now I can sympathize with those blokes who take a swing at others who look at their girlfriends…"

"Between Yugi being disappointed in him, me and Joey teasing him, and Serenity getting a copy of this I'm more than certain that he'll be cured of that." Tea grinned impishly. "But yeah, I'll be fine, I'm just creeped out a little bit by all of this."

"You are going to get back at him though, right?" Isis asked for clarification.

"Oh yeah." Tea smirked evilly. "I'm gonna put him through a special kind of hell…"

XXX

"Are those live squid?" Yami looked down dubiously to the creatures trying to crawl out of the cooler.

"Actually that's our lunch, I'm making those of us who can chew without pain shashimi but first I'm going to have some fun with them." Tea informed distractedly as she shooed the creeping tentacles back into the cooler.

"What's in the duffel bag…?" The boy was starting to get a bad feeling about all of this.

"Towels, a change of clothes and underwear, and some emergency scissors to cut the rope incase of a malfunction in the tightness and knots." Tea said as she continued to swat at the creeping limbs of the creatures in the cooler.

"Rope?" The former spirit asked.

Tea lifted up her shirt slightly to show the crisscross of rope that had been tied around her body.

"…Why does your shirt say; _my big brother's a pervert_?" The former spirit asked tentatively as Tea attempted to put the lid back onto the cooler without squishing any inquisitive tentacles.

"Oh well you know how I think of you guys as my brothers right? Well I just thought that I'd help Yugi ruin that perverted little mindset Tristan- aka one of my brothers- has about me and him, and things with tentacles, and harem girls as a whole." The girl hummed merrily to herself. "Do you know if Yugi's ready yet? Did he manage to get his hands on the rubber tarantulas?"

"Ready for what-?" The spirit began but was halted when his partner came skipping down the hall towards them.

"What do you think?" Yugi grinned, holding his arms out as he twirled around, showing off the skimpy ancient Egyptian style inspired dress and all the bejeweled jewelry that he wore. "Should I just go with this or should I go with the loin cloth and the strapless belly beaded shirt thing?"

"Uh?" The former pharaoh spoke eloquently, staring at his boyfriend dumbstruck.

"Keep the dress it'll freak him out more." Tea advised. "And Yami's a few seconds away from drooling all over you so…"

"Yeah." Yugi agreed casting the other boy a flustered glance. "Hey Yami, could you keep an eye out in the shop for like ten minutes? We would prefer it if no one else but Tristan walked in on us wearing these ridiculous costumes."

"You're wearing that for Tristan and not me?" The former spirit inquired incredulously, he sounded a little bit flustered as well. "Why? He'd never enjoy it as much as I do."

Yugi rolled his eyes before his face settled into a cute little pout. "This is to get back at him for all of those harem comments and how he kept saying that I couldn't score anybody as handsome or as beautiful as you on my own, _which I did not appreciate by the way_ , but if you feel so strongly about it then I suppose that I could wear this again for you later, but only if you help us out for a bit."

Atem hesitated. "…I'm torn between doing just that and demanding what it is exactly you two are up to…"

"It'll become obvious soon enough." Yugi assured.

XXX

"Hey pharaoh has my future sister-in-law made lunch yet?" Malik greeted the other boy first thing when Atem opened the shop door for him.

"…I don't remember Tea or Yugi saying that you had been invited to lunch." Atem squinted at Malik suspiciously.

"Oh that's because I texted her last minute to ask if I could join, you see I just heard from Isis that Tea had gone off to buy the ingredients for the food she and Yugi were making for lunch, and since Odin is conducting business at Kiaba Corp. and neither Isis nor I can cook anything edible to save our lives I just thought that I should do my best to catch a decent home-cooked healthy meal while I could." The boy smiled brightly.

"And you couldn't just go down the street from the museum and order ramen from a restaurant because…?" Atem prompted.

"Well, I ran into Serenity the other day and she showed me this really… interesting video of Tristan hopped up on the dentist drugs, she said that she needed someone old enough to help her procure some items since she'll be leaving for America with Mai soon and she wanted the opportunity to make fun of Tristan in some way or another. "Long distance hazing" is what I think she called it." Malik hummed looking up to the ceiling. "I just thought that this could be the perfect opportunity to give this to him since he's staying with you guys while his family is away on vacation and to get something to eat!"

Atem looked down at the bag that the other boy held loosely in his hand. "I've once witnessed Serenity Wheeler reduce three grown men to tears armed with nothing but her words, her tiny- yet surprisingly heavy- purse, and her impeccable aim, she then proceeded to get away with her behavior by running to a police officer and accusing the three catcallers as pedophiles, which had been true due to her age, and then fleeing the scene of the crime without a trace."

"She's a surprisingly sadistic little thing." Malik agreed now eyeing the bag as well. "Would you mind making sure that Tristan opens this when he's alone? It's… not for the eyes of polite company."

"That is doable." Atem nodded. "We can't go upstairs quite yet though, I have been charged with keeping people out until Yugi and Tea are finished with their revenge."

"I thought that Yugi and revenge didn't go together." Malik raised his brow.

"That is the common misconception." Atem nodded sagely, eyeing the ceiling wearily.

"MMMMUUUUUAAAAGH!" Came a terrified cry from somewhere above causing the two boys to startle.

"What was-?" Malik started to ask but he was answered by a pajama clad Tristan scampering past them and locking himself into the shop's supply closet.

"That should do the trick." Tea's smug voice floated down from the apartment above.

"We can pry him out after we finish changing back into normal clothes." Yugi's voice assessed. "By the way could you help me with this? The squid is getting a little too friendly for my liking- EEEP!"

"Ooh this this is just asking to be sliced up alive!" Tea's voice grumbled irritably. "It's trying to eat you or something!"

"…Malik could you watch the shop for a moment? I'm going to help Tea slice up some squid." The former pharaoh announced as he stalked toward the upstairs apartment.


	12. Mermaid Sighting K Dance

Mermaid sighting

"I knew it!" Joey declared. "She gots a new job and didn't tell us 'bout it, again!"

"You've been saying that for the past hour man. Wherever she disappeared to it's nowhere around here. She probably gave us the slip." Tristan stated bluntly before taking a loud sip of his drink.

"What do ya think Yug'?" Joey turned to his other friend.

"Am I the only one who thinks that it's weird that there's no fish in that fish tank?" Yugi wondered out loud.

"Huh, that is weird." Tristan turned his attention towards the giant fish tank beside them whose side acted like a big glass wall for three sides of the café.

"Are you sayin' that ya don't care dat she's been keepin' secrets again?" Joey challenged Yugi.

Tristan tuned the other two out as Yugi tried to assure Joey that he did _care_ , but he wasn't _worried_ … it _was_ weird that there were no fish; the boy would have thought that with a tank of this size they would have some sharks or something swimming in it-

A flicker of a bright pink tale catches his eye, to his increasing shock he sees Tea glide past them on the far side of the tank, waving to the people staring in awe on the other side before whirling and twirling her way over to their side of the glass.

Tea seems to freeze when she spies them through the glass, sinking down a little in the water in the process.

Tristan's jaw drops and he points to her flabbergasted.

Tea turns tail and abruptly swims away.

"Ah! Oh my god! Tea!" Tristan jumps up from his seat and tries to mush his face to the glass in an attempt to see where the girl had swam off to. "Tea's a mermaid!" The boy wailed.

XXX

"Tea? What are you doing back up here girl?" Jeff asks his fellow mermaid as she pops up to the surface in a panic.

"Those friends of mine that I told you about are here! They must have followed me!" Tea informed sounding just as shocked as she looked.

"Those cute high school honeys that you showed me in that photograph? Damn I gots to see this for myself!" Jeff clapped excitedly to himself before diving into the pool.

"You still haven't told them?" Mai asked, her hands on her hips.

"I never really knew how to string the right words together." Tea smiled apologetically at her girlfriend.

"Uh hmm." Mai deadpanned, kneeling down. "And what do you plan on doing now?"

"Ummm…" Tea thought. "Let them find out on their own? It'll at least give me some time to think about how I'm going to explain myself."

"Like how your going to manage to politely put into words that you're mad at your best friend for ogling you creepily at your last job? Or how you're hurt that they never caught on that you hated the way you were being treated like an object there even though it should have been obvious that you looked highly uncomfortable?" Mai raised a brow.

Tea sighed. "I know that I shouldn't be this mad, after all unless I speak plainly to them they never seem to catch on that something is off."

"But you are still worried that if you say anything that they'll just brush it off as you acting like a whining girl who is making a big deal out of nothing." Mai finishes knowingly.

Tea's eyes widen as the other's words struck home. "…How did you-?"

"I've been there honey." Mai informs sagely. "Remember most of my income these days comes from playing children's card games in tournaments that are mostly male dominated."

"Do you happen to know how I can phrase things in a way that won't hurt their feelings and won't make me sound like a whining brat to their ears?" Tea asked hopefully.

"Not a clue." Mai shakes her head. "You know how guys can get honey, the slightest things that aren't what they appear to be in their worldview and they get all oversensitive and moody about it. It's like PMS only they don't got a decent excuse for it."

Tea couldn't help but snicker guiltily at the comparison.

XXX

"…He's plum lost his mind…" Joey muttered. "For da record I don't know him!" He called over his shoulder to the amused waitress walking past.

"That's not very nice of you to go and call Tea a guy Tristan." Yugi scolded while pointing to the brunette mere-man waving his tail cheekily at them.

"Woah dat guy's got a tail!" Joey squealed excitedly.

"No I swear guys I just saw her swim that way!" Tristan pointed in the direction their friend had disappeared.

XXX

Tea relaxed into a bright grin as she blew the little girl in front of her a bubble kiss, she could see the child giggle happily as she put her little hands to the glass. Tea mirrored the placement of the little girl's hands and grinned widely as she moved her tail up and down in exaggerated movements making the little girl squeal in delight.

' _Partner Tristan's right, Tea is one of the mermaids working here._ ' Yami tattled, the spirit had peeked ahead to the next area over to where Yugi and the others were searching the large, oddly shaped fish tank for a mermaid that looked like Tea at Tristan's insistence.

The girl in question looked over the younger girl's shoulder, to where she could see Yugi's noticeable hair peeking out from behind a wall, waved goodbye, and swam away just as Yugi and the other's came into the room.

"The other me says that we just missed her." Yugi informed the others while gesturing over to his spiritual partner, making the little girl giggle.

"Hi other meeee~!" She laughed at the area that Yugi had pointed to. "Are ju da bigger boy's indivisible friend? I've got's a indivisible friend tooo!"

" _Oh now that's just cute_." The former pharaoh chuckled warmly at the little girl.

XXX

"Hey Tea?" Mai inquired as her girlfriend came up for air. "Just out of curiosity did your fellas ever ask you why you haven't been working at Burger World lately?"

"Nope." Tea shook her head. "Yugi's too shy to ask me about anything, Yami doesn't seem to care about what I do in my off time- I think that _my life_ bores him-, Joey's never been back after a case of food poisoning, and Tristan's been too busy waxing on about these three waitresses that still work there to really notice that I've been gone."

"And you've never told them yourself." Mai concluded.

Tea winced and shrugged. "Like I said; I don't know the full reason why I'm mad at them, I've got bits and pieces of it, but not the whole reason. But I am hoping that this feeling will subside after they find out about all of this on their own. I don't know why but I just get the feeling that I might feel better after this."

"You're feeling like they're ignoring you and your life." Mai realized. "Tell me; have they asked you about how your day has been or what's going on with you?"

"…No." Tea admitted sinking down into the water a few inches. "And I feel like I'm being a pest by just announcing what's going on. So I've stopped saying anything about myself."

"You're hoping that if you attract their attention like this then they'll start remembering that you exist and have interesting things to tell them about your life that aren't related to duel monsters." Mai guessed.

Tea blinked. "Huh. Well that does make sense. Though I also want them to start telling me things about their lives too. Aside from Tristan waxing on about practically every cute girl he meets Joey and Yugi have been unusually quiet. It's even gotten to the point where their constant need to talk about duel monsters has gotten really old."

"The plot thickens." Mai joked.

"Lets see how long it takes them to find me this time." Tea grinned wickedly, pushing herself up to give Mai a kiss before dunking beneath the water.

XXX

Tea fought the urge to out and out _look_ as she openly swam past her friends and headed towards the hidden locker room area, herding her bewildered friends to and fro in a game of fish tank hide and seek had been fun, and her supervisor had been kind enough to allow her some extra time in the water (especially since her friends kept buying food and drinks during Tea's breaks and the entire moral of the waiting staff was endlessly amused) however her time in the pool was up and Tea was actually happy that it was her turn to go over the stock of toys that they sold in both the café and in the aquarium gift shop it would give her more time to think about how to go about the eventual confrontation that was sure to ensue sooner or later.

Tea felt guilty for keeping any secrets from her friends but… was it really so bad if she was just afraid of losing them if she were to-?

To do what exactly? Tell them about her day? That didn't sound like it was such a bad thing right? She avoided complaining about her last job at the burger place partially because if word ever got back to her old manager that she had been speaking out of turn she'd get sacked without a last paycheck… and also there was the fact that on more than several occasions both Tristan and Duke (the latter being someone that Tea never really ever considered to be one of her friends, one of the forever forgiving Yugi's friends sure, but not her friend) complain about the pretty waitresses that they were flirting with complaining about their job, and yes Tea suspected that they were mostly grouchy (well Duke was mostly grouchy, Tristan was a lot nicer though he did say that he was frustrated that the girls would always come to him as a sounding board now) about being firmly put into the sympathetic-ear-friend-zone by the waitresses instead of scoring a date with them… but Tea wasn't too certain as to what the other's reactions would be if she were to raise her voice.

Tristan probably would not appreciate being retold the same complaints that he'd been hearing from his lost crushes, Joey would be sympathetic but the crushed feelings of his bud Tristan would have to come first, Yugi probably would be infuriatingly optimistic and would have tried to make Tea see some good sides of the job… and also make shy comments on how "nice" Tea looked in that uncomfortable uniform and how he always enjoyed it when she served him food with a smile (and she knew that he'd only _mean it_ in the _nicest possible way_ because that was _Yugi_ but she just could not trust herself to not snap at him because it would totally freaking sound smarmy and dismissive no matter how kindly he said it or what he really meant by it!), and the spirit wouldn't give enough care to it to even make an appearance most likely, except maybe to ask about the special collection of water-themed duel monster cards that they were selling special beside the bins selling polished rocks and cheep plastic sea creatures.

…Not that the spirit ever really talked to her much at all in the first place, maybe it was to prevent her from falling for him instead of Yugi (because she was a girl and therefore she was obviously after something from her childhood best friend even though she had as of yet to try anything despite the fact that Tea was hot and she knew it enough that she could twist any guy she wanted around her little finger… if she had actually been born with that sort of inclination in the first place…), or more likely (because it should have become obvious that she wasn't interested in any of them by now damnit!) he just figured that she simply was just too boring since she wasn't into games and was female so she wasn't worth the effort to try to get to know aside from the occasional semi-flirtatious remark he directed at her that was, she could clearly tell, mostly done out of boredom.

And for months now none of them have ever expressed interest in going to one of her dance recitals to cheer her on even when she had the ability to give them free tickets (the irony of her always being there to cheer during dueling tournaments even when she didn't like duel monsters that much was not lost on her), or talked with her about anything aside from, the spirit, games, or food! Sure she never asked the outright to come, to a dance thing or an art opening that would be exciting for her but boring for them, she wanted to have fun without the guilt after all… but still they never expressed interest in going even when she did talk about it to them… and all conversations after she began talking about her dancing dreams were then always sidetracked to something boring and really strange like glitter or nail polish, always clothes, always, always clothes, which got to be so strange (and more than a little frightening because heated discussions about hemlines? Really?), so she stopped talking about herself out of sheer self-defense and in recent weeks… ended up mostly being left out of the conversation completely…

"You'll figure out somethin' hon." Tea grinned like a loon at Mai as the older woman kissed her before helping in getting her tale off. "They like you enough to stay friends with you this long so there must be something good there."

"I know, and I'm confident that as long as I keep calm and not freak out on them that we'll work out what is going on." Tea half-lied and proceeded to discuss lighter subjects with her girlfriend until Mai had to get going in order to get to her duel monsters seminar on time and Tea had to go back to work.

As soon as she walked into the large loading bay at the back of the aquarium and began the task of cataloguing all the boxes of new merchandise however Tea let her brave smile falter.

If she didn't trust her friends enough to talk to them about her getting a new job or about her looking into applying to dance schools all over the United States if she didn't make it into a school in New York without fear of negative rebuttal then how the heck was she even going to hope to explain to them that she liked girls instead of boys in a romantic sense?

Tea continued to fret as she continued on with her day, doing everything possible to avoid going into public areas or the café just incase she ran into her friends before she was ready.

Maybe this was for the best, Tea figured forcing herself not to cry (she learned how to stop tears as a little girl after the first time she fell off her bike and scraped her knee badly enough that it bled all over the sidewalk and the boys she had been attempting to make friends with had been laughing at her for showing such weakness. As her grandmother had attended to the wound the old woman taught her to 1. Hold her breath, 2. Roll her eyes up as far as they would go, and 3. If need be to pinch the bridge of her nose where the tear ducts were to stem the water wanting to escape), maybe it was time to get out while she could with as little pain as she could handle. If it had gotten to the point where she had to pretend that she was happy and that there were no issues then what was the point? She was exhausted when it came to having to constantly worry about getting harassed at school or at home if people ever found out that she was gay then how the hell was she supposed to handle being afraid of talking plainly to her own friends for heaven's sake!

…Maybe because she still had to go to school with them?

She was smart enough to test out of high school. She could attempt to test into the more advanced classes at Domino on Monday and if she was successful (and really, really sneaky) she could stall having to interact with them until she had gotten the okay to leave once the test results came back and then she could be outta there like a fire demon outta a freezer.

She just had to keep calm, not cry, not show any weakness, and just let the conversation flow. She could hide her hurt well enough on a good day, why let them see her hurt if she could just simply make them think that she had seen this coming a long way off?

 _Oh good hell this was going to be painful…_

XXX

The café was almost empty when Tea got off shift.

Save for four certain people sitting at a booth up against the empty fish tank (although you couldn't tell it was more than three because Yami was invisible…) and some lonely dudes at the sandwich bar… and the sandwich bar tender, and by now the people who had overheard Tea and Mai talking had hit the gossip mill and the rest of the staff were hiding in the kitchen, being sure to give Tea one big rehearsed thumbs up and an offer to raise hell if Tea ended up in tears.

Tea resolved herself further to not end up in tears or to show any sort of upset at all, her old friend's lives could very well depend on it.

Tea armed herself with a smoothie and a sandwich to help make everything feel and look more normal (that and she could eat on the run), pulled up a chair and set it backwards to the end of the table so that she could straddle-sit on it much like she'd seen boys do on occasion (it would further help her if she could escape quickly).

"So that the spirit can sit there." Tea mumbled softly pointing to the empty seat beside a confused looking Yugi.

Yugi smiled at Tea as he tilted his head to the side as if listening to someone beside him, breaking out into a grin after a moment of silent listening. "He says thank you for being so considerate for him."

Tea nodded nervously, taking a small bite from her sandwich.

"So… Tea, why'didya not tell us you was working here?" Joey began casually, batting his eyelashes.

"Well I left my last job a few weeks ago due to the fact that they offered their employees no protection from the creeps that frequented the place, the hours were growing more demanding, the manager was a creep, the pay was crud, and I hated that itchy uniform, the fact that I was constantly freezing in the dang thing and the fact that the most frequent patrons tended to be adolescent boys or old men who were getting their rocks off of a little girl wearing a dishtowel serving them and being unable to do anything to protest if they decided to get a little grabby or talk out of turn." Tea grumbled lowly glaring down at the table, hating the fact that she currently felt like a child that was being scolded unfairly, she felt nine-years-old all over again and this situation reminded her of something like the time she clobbered a bully who was trying to smash her face in the dirt in order for her to run off to safety before he came out of his daze and do something about being knocked on his bum by a tiny girl.

"I didn't want to be annoying or a hassle or anything by complaining bout it especially since you guys were already getting an earful when the others were complaining to you guys about it so I just-"

Tea nearly jumped a foot when Joey suddenly knocked Tristan's head into the table with alarming force. "I tolded you! Didn' I tell ya's? Didn' I tell ya's dat you was bein' insensitive 'bout spewin' all dat stuff 'bout yous not wantin' 't hear 'bout dos nice girls tellin' ya's dat dey hated workin' dere an' dat ting 'bout girls always whinin' 'bout nuttin' worth hearin'? I swear every time you hang out wit dice boy outside'a duel monstahs game ya's de-evolve inta an idiot Neanderthal!" The blond boy snapped grabbing onto his friend's ear and twisting it, only letting go when on instinct Tea coaxed her fellow brunette's head out of the blond's grasp and held her cold plastic smoothie cup to the red spot on Tristan's head.

"Holy- Tristan are you okay?" Tea asked over Joey swearing left, right, and center.

"Is fine. I deserve it. I so sorrwy Tea. I sorrwy." Tristan groped blindly for a moment before finding the girl's forearm to pat companion-ly his other hand clutching the growing welt at the back of his head.

"Dis is why you is always single!" Joey punched Tristan's arm for emphasis before turning to Tea. "An' you! Why didn't you come ta Yug' or I if ya couldn't come to Tristan? Hmm? We woulda listened."

Tea gaped for a moment. "I-I didn't want to be a nuisance."

"A nuisance? Tea you're never a nuisance to us, what ever could have given you that idea?" Yugi asked, his tone soothing and gentle.

At that Tea had to think a little, forcefully pushing the shock of somebody who was male asking for the cold hard truth for once in what seemed like forever. "…I guess it just never occurred to me? I never had much of an opportunity to talk about these things before without worrying about… the fact that I'm a girl, getting in the way of my personal relationships, I've already had some pretty bad experiences in the past with speaking about these things when guys were around and until recently I've never been able to really make a positive impression on other girls to the point where I can talk about it to them… so usually when something like this happens I just… deal with it?"

Yugi shook his head not comprehending. "What does being a girl have to do with anything?"

"Pretty much everything?" Tea looked around the table feeling as lost as she felt. "I mean it's been this way since I was a kid, every time I managed to make some resemblance to friends for a while I always end up messing it up by reminding them in some way that I'm a girl like… if I got hurt while doing some sort of activity and ended up crying over the pain I'd be made fun of and left friendless at the end of the day, or later on after puberty hit all of the boys- save for Yugi obviously- that I had been of acquaintance with in the past all either cut all ties to me due to my gender or… demanded some sort of compensation for letting me hang out with them." The girl winced feeling a little tired at the thought of the subject.

"Compensation?" Yugi asked his brows furrowing worriedly.

"They demanded sex." Tea wrinkled her nose as she spoke bluntly, too tired to dance around the subject. "It was always a demand for sex. Which is why I did not want to say anything and end up being all whiny and annoying to you guys because you all have been so fantastic and never demanded such things from me, **_especially since I do not feel that way about any one of you which makes you guys safe for me to be around_** , and even though I still run into the rare occasional jerk who either wants to "save me" from following the horrid path to destruction by becoming a dancer or just creeps in general-"

"What?" Tristan yelps. "When did this start happening?"

"Ummm…" Tea gives the boy an odd look. "Since I was twelve? It's not like it's something abnormal although it's not as bad now as it used to be-"

"And who may these unsavory young men be?" The baritone voice of Yami Yugi, spirit of the puzzle, speaks up in a deceptively light tone.

"Does it matter anymore?" Tea blinks at the boy in weary surprise. Since when did _he_ care? "I don't speak to the ones from my past anymore and the few recent ones I don't even remember their names because… I don't know why exactly but one minute they're there and the next minute, poof, they're gone." And all of the older acquaintances had learned the value of staying away all in thanks to Tea being a dancer and therefore a lot stronger in the punching and kicking department than the average girl, she still had a reputation for being that crazy girl who had once kicked one of Yugi's bullies so hard between his legs that he had to go to the hospital.

"And that's a really good thing though it would be… best to be safe and mention some names or descriptions, we know that you can take care of yourself but we would also like to be in the know if something is bothering you." The spirit spoke gently, covering one of her hands with both of his own.

"…Would that really be alright?" Tea asked feeling as uncertain as her voice sounded, eyeing the table in complete bafflement. Idly she could see in the reflection of the glass fish tank that the staff had come out of the kitchen and were going about their work with one ear to their conversation. "I don't want to annoy anybody-"

"Ya won't be annoyin' us." Joey sniffed glaring daringly at Tristan. "I know dat dere are a lot of fellas out dere dat are weird 'bout bein' near da lady-folk but we're not dem."

"Then why have you guys been acting so weird recently?" Tea blurted out. "Half the time you guys are talking about really strange things like hemlines and the other half you don't seem to know how to talk to me."

There was a sudden bout of sheepish looks and nervous coughing.

"…There may have been a few attempts that were clearly ill executed to make you feel more at ease around us with topics we had assumed you would like." The spirit finally admitted tactfully. "You seemed preoccupied and withdrawn we were worried that you were getting bored with us or that something was wrong."

And I was worried that they were getting bored of me while I was dealing with the depressing thoughts of them not accepting me as I am. Tea thought in astonishment.

"And here I was worried that you guys were getting bored with me." Tea shook her head feeling completely mystified. "Now how did that happen? You guys and I were having more or less the exact same issue and none of us picked up on it. I mean what was stopping us from just… communicating, talking plainly and such."

"Well… to be fair _we_ had thought that you didn't want to talk to us and would get angry if we tried." Yami cast two guilty looking faces across the table an I-told-you-so look; obviously he had not been a part of the faction that had assumed that. "We noticed you looking a bit down a while back and we just assumed that you wanted your space."

"Oh…" Tea coughed self-consciously. "I was merely dealing with some personal worries about… well me being me and a lot of big decisions I've been making for my future. As it turns out going from a girl who wants to grow into an independent woman with a dream career and a life to live as I very darn well please is… happening a lot faster than I had anticipated. To be honest I had always assumed that all the crazy new life in a new city stuff would all happen the summer after high school… I didn't anticipate things to accelerate to the point to where… well one of the many things that have been happening is that I've been approached by several individuals in the field and they've… offered to help me take some special night classes so that I could test out of high school and either get myself a scholarship that would allow me to leave early or to keep working here for a while longer and save up what I'd get working fulltime to help me out over in the states… and that is just one teeny tiny facet to all the other stuff that has suddenly turned up and… I am very overwhelmed.

"I'll bet." The spirit, bless him, spoke immediately even as Joey and Tristan fell into shocked stupors. "You are very bright and persistent, I'm sure that if you would put your mind to it that you'd be able to get your high school degree early, I've come to understand that the city of New York is rather pricy to live in, a scholarship or a fulltime job will help you greatly."

Tea felt completely thrown. What? The spirit was actually paying attention and- what? "I-I know that it will but… geeze it's scary you know? All these possibilities are right there for me to take but there are just so many of them… I honestly don't know how I'm going to keep up with them all!" Which was very true, there was so much going on at the moment that her head was completely spinning from all the possibilities suddenly offered to her.

Yami squeezed her fingers and smiled, there was laughter in his eyes as well as a great deal of relief. "Which is why as your very important platonic friends, if you would like, we can all sit down with some paper and a pencil and start making lists and such to help you out with narrowing it all down and forming a plan…"

And so Tea relaxed as things were suddenly pulled back into alignment, as her friends all chipped in with encouragement and ideas a small but significant flicker of hope sprung to life in her chest.

 _Maybe…_ it whispered with a lingering thought of Mai and her, together, years down the road.


End file.
